My goodness, I had no idea that the patterns on Aran sweaters can be parsed apart to reveal family lineages. Why, they must be just as authentic as Scottish tartans. Who knew!

http://www.clanarans.com/ca/catalog/

There is an element of truth in it.

Often when the body of a fisherman was finally washed up, the pattern of the jumper allowed him to be identified.

Interesting, Aonghus. I thought for sure it would've been a contrived money-making scheme.

Also regarding Aran clothing, have a look at the pictures on this page:

http://www.victororeilly.com/memories/aranislands.htm#anothertomchance

The photographer snapped them on Inis Meáin in the early 1960's. The man in the 2nd, and woman in the 3rd photo are wearing something about their shoulders with long fringe.

What are these? Are they simply a type of knitted shawl?

Yes. And the man in the 2nd photo is a woman.

How embarrassing. I thought twice about that before I posted, and figured I'd just take a chance. So much for that.

Is it the same woman as in the 3rd picture? The face was similar but the hair seemed different, and of course the lady in the third pic had her head covered as well.

When I went to Inis Mor I had high hopes of procurring one of those grand red skirts that you see in the old photos and hear Synge talk of. But when I got there I was fighting upset to find that though there were sweaters all over noone could sell me a red skirt. We spoke to one old woman (who I'm convinced was Maggie Durrain's daughter) who told us of how she had left for Galway as a young woman and had intended to return to raise her children and wear the traditional clothing, alas when she came home it was too late and the skirts were gone from use. This story somehow seemed significant, the idea that if you don't preserve things then who will. She taught me a word for sad nostalgia that I suspect she was the only keeper of. I wish I could remember. I asked around but noone else knew the word.

Beir bua agus beannacht

She taught me a word for sad nostalgia that I suspect she was the only keeper of. I wish I could remember. I asked around but noone else knew the word.

Uaigneas?

Sure and I wouldn't be remembering it now, it was nearly a year ago. But I wish I could have one of those skirts, I rather scorn the sweaters for staying in existance instead of the skirts.

Beir bua agus beannacht

If you really want a skirt, there's nothing to stop you making one or having one made. The originals have been out of use for at least 50 years so I think they would be in pretty sorry shape by now.

If you come across a short documentary by Brendán Feiritéar called "Talamh Pheadair", you'll see that in 1994 some elderly women in Inis Meáin still wore woven shawls and that sort of skirts.

I wonder if on an out chance netflix would have this film, probably not but I don't know where else to look. I still need to obtain The Story Of English so I can see another video of Sean Henry the monoglot Irish speaker from the 80s whom I enjoyed watching on Search For The Trojan War. So far netflix doesn't have it and when I obtained a copy from the library it was broken :( I was most displeased and positively pissed off by the fact that they would let it stay in the system while broken so people could get their hopes up about seeing it and then be disappointed.

Beir bua agus beannacht

Maraígí na bithiúnaigh.

Peter, I'm sure you could still find a few elderly women in the old style garb but they wouldn't be new clothes readily available in shops.

The word for nostalgia: cumha, caithe(amh)??

Sean-Daithí,
are you saying it is nothing more than nostalgia, and these women dont exist? I find that hard to believe!...

No, I was just trying to answer Riona. She wrote she can recall the Irish word meaning 'nostalgia'.

As for the women, I'm doubt they don't exist. Elderly people often wear old style clothes, especially in rural regions.

Like auld lads looking like they are farm hands from the 20s with caps and all

Sin é é.