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For countless centuries, all the flour consumed in Ireland was ground in mills all over the country, although nowadays nearly all the flour we use is imported.
The long history of mills and milling, water and wind-driven, the original green energy, has been been preserved, thanks to the dedication of one man, William Hogg, a noted industrial archaeologist. He did a huge amount of work documenting the mills of Ireland, once used not just for producing flour, but for many other purposes, too, such as sawmilling and textile manufacturing.
Going one step further, he set up the Mills and Millers of Ireland Society in 2001, to document and help preserve Ireland’ s old mills. Appropriately, he is now life president.
The society has about 80 members, one-third from the North, with the remainder from this part of the country. Many visits to mill sites are organised, and this year’ s programme concentrates on distilleries, beginning with the Midleton distillery in Co Cork. Usually, about 40 people turn up for each visit.
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The society’ s website lists 35 locations all over Ireland. Some are water- driven flour mills that have been restored, a far cry from the heyday of Irish milling, around 200 years ago, when Ireland had over 7,000 mills.
Back in the 1940s, there were over 900 working mills in Ireland.
Throughout Ireland, there are still the remains of some 660 old grain mills.
Some of the old mills have been meticulously restored, like Martry Mill near Kells in Co Meath, grinding grain since 1641. It has been in the Tallon family since 1859 and is still producing flour. During the first and second World Wars, this mill was working 24 hours a day.
The Tallons are very involved in the Mills and Millers Society, but James Tallon doesn’t see water mills being restored to the functioning level of Martry Mill in the future.
Ballindud Mill, on the outskirts of Waterford city, which dates back to the time of the knights templar, with a mill race that is over six kilometres long, was reconstructed around 1978 by the late Paddy Griffin.
The Finnerty’s Mills, near Loughrea in Co Galway, also water powered, have also been meticulously restored and have a museum.
Craanford Mill near Gorey in Co Wexford is over 400 years old, but was restored to full working order in the 1990s.
Fancroft Mill, on the borders of Offaly and Tipperary, derives its name from an anglicisation of Fionn Choradh, the white water.
In addition to mills once used for producing flour, other mills also have fascinating histories, like Bealick Mill, near Macroom in Co Cork, which in 1899 saw its water power used for the first public electricity-generating station in Ireland.
The society’s list of mills includes windmills that have been restored, including the two at Skerries in north Co Dublin, Elphin in Co Roscommon, the Blennerville windmill, near Tralee, and Ballycopeland windmill in Co Down.
Two of the most intriguing mills are Patterson’ s spade mill in Co Antrim and the Wellbrook beetling mill in Co Tyrone, complementing mill history at the Ulster Folk Museum.
Other old mills have been converted to other uses. Near Navan, the Old Mill House at Rosnaree was once a mill, parts of which dated back to the 10th century, and which finally stopped milling in 1932. Barbara Heise says that they restored the mill using traditional methods, but that they use geothermal heat produced from the mill stream. The many visitors who stay are often most attracted by its sheela na gig.
In Co Kilkenny, an 18th-century mill was converted into the Grennan craft school, while Nicholas Mosse has his pottery in an restored mill in the same county.
Mullins Mill, also in Co Kilkenny, has a craft centre, while Belmont Mill in Co Offaly now has artists’ studios.
The Foxford woollen mills in Co Mayo are renowned, together with the Kerry woollen mills in Beaufort.
These days, we only have one industrial flour mill left, in Portarlington in Co Laois, and according to Dermot Doherty, of the Irish Bread Bakers’ Association, about 80 per cent of the flour we use is imported from the UK, a situation that will create its own set of problems after Brexit. But in Co Wexford, the Kavanagh brothers, Andrew and Ray, are building the first new flour mill in Ireland since the 1970s.
To paraphrase the advertising slogan of a well- known Dublin bakery, the history is in the milling.