An iconic Irish image is in danger of disappearing, thanks to rising costs, problematic insurance and a lack of skilled workers, writes Brian O'Connell

"Couchant for days on sods above the rafters,
He shaved and flushed the butts, stitched all together
Into sloped honeycomb, a stubble patch,
And left them gaping at his Midas touch."
- from Thatcher, by Seamus Heaney

In the gift shop at Bunratty Castle Folk Park, a faded vision of Ireland is up for grabs, purchased by Laser card and preserved in bubble wrap. Medium-sized shillelaghs? Not a problem. "Authentic" Aran sweaters? Second shelf on the right. "Luck of the Irish" tea towels? Just in stock.

It's easy to be cynical. In many ways the medieval castle and folk park is the Graceland of Irish heritage, a place where tourists can sample the real Ireland for a day, without having to waste petrol looking for it. Yet when it comes to an iconic image of Ireland, this park, and others like it, could soon be the only places preserving an age-old tradition.

Thatched cottages have been as much a part of Ireland's image as shamrocks and stew, yet there is increasing concern that thatching in Ireland is in a state of terminal disrepair.

A 2005 Department of the Environment report estimated that 1,300 thatched dwellings survive in Ireland, marking a dramatic rate of decline in a little over a generation. The report highlighted a real crisis in the survival of historic thatch, arguing that without action, "it is possible to say that outside of folk museums, very little historic thatch will soon be left". Many feel this decline has been accelerated by a general unwillingness to associate post-Celtic Tiger Ireland with a less sophisticated past. Tied in with this too are practical reasons, as architect Willie Cummings points out. "One of the problems is that these houses directly reflected a lifestyle and farming practice of a particular era, and that's gone now. So we are trying to protect this tradition without the apparent economic reasons to sustain it."

Others share this bleak assessment. Helena Bergin is a conservation officer for Fingal County Council. A survey conducted in 1986 listed 72 thatched cottages in Fingal. Two years ago, at the time of the Department of Environment report, Bergin undertook some research of her own and visited the thatched buildings in the area. Alarmingly, only 38 of them remain thatched. With a similar situation in many other counties, it begs the question: is anything been done to preserve one of Ireland's oldest traditions?

Back at Bunratty, master thatcher Ger Tracy has little time for statistics. The last in a long line of Bunratty thatchers, he has worked on the folk park's thatched cottages for over 25 years. When we meet, he is tending to the thatch on the Fisherman's Cottage, a small two-roomed building yards from the castle. He thinks it may have been 15 years since he last worked on this cottage. Not long from retirement, he knows this will be his last time thatching it, and as of yet there is no one to take up the reins. Having grown up in a partly thatched house in Co Clare, Tracy has a deep connection with the tradition, and can recall an era when the thatcher was a respected member of the community.

"I'm from a place called O'Callaghan's Mills, and a portion of our house was thatched growing up. I remember in our village there were five thatched houses and people took great pride in their homes being thatched. The thatcher was seen as a person of some importance, who was known for preserving the folklore of an area." There are no thatched cottages left in O'Callaghan's Mills today, and while Tracy takes pride in his ability to continue to work as a thatcher, he worries about the future of thatching. "Like it or not, these houses are very much part of our past and we still belong to that heritage. Maybe the young people today don't have the same insight into it, as they didn't grow up with it like I did.

"I'm very privileged to have the work in the park to carry on. Before I retire I'd really like someone to pick it up."

AS WELL AS A shortage of trainee thatchers, reliable materials have also been hard to come by in recent years, as Munster thatcher Richard O'Loideoin has found out. "At the moment there's not enough Irish reed being harvested so that many thatchers struggle to get material. Often for new builds we use Turkish reeds, which last up to 10 years longer than Irish ones and are easy to import." A thatcher for the last 15 years, O'Loideoin says business is steady in Munster at least, thanks to the availability of extensive grant schemes by various Government departments, yet more could be done. Having had difficulty locating a trainee thatcher locally, O'Loideoin found the solution in the Polish community, and played his part in developing a new set of trainee craftspeople in Ireland.

"Any Irish lads I had came and went, so I took a Polish lad on as a labourer. I trained him to thatch and he has turned out to be a great thatcher, all the more impressive when you consider he never saw a reed until he moved here. The Irish lads I had seemed caught up in romantic notions of thatching. But the reality is that it is construction work, on a roof in all kinds of weather for 40-50 hours a week. Daniel, our Polish employee, is delighted with the work and has settled and married here so he will be part of the next generation of thatchers in Ireland."

To help ensure that enough thatchers exist to carry on what is left of the tradition, Fás has also taken the initiative and developed a traineeship in thatching. Ten recruits are currently nearing the end of a 48-week training course, led by thatcher Brian Simpson at a specially configured site on the grounds of Portumna Castle. The trainees range in age from 21 to 47 years, and many of them will go on to secure work with master thatchers throughout the country.

"I'm optimistic for the future," says Simpson. "Five or six of our trainees will probably go on to full-time thatching work, which is a good return. I agree that there is a certain romantic notion of thatching, but it's much the same as a modern roofer. It's demanding and challenging work." Fás plans to run the course next year also, which should ensure a sufficient supply of new thatchers for the next decade at least.

Since the Department of Environment report in 2005, some progress has been made, yet the concern is that there may not be enough work to sustain these newly trained thatchers. It's difficult to obtain any cohesive data on the state of Ireland's thatching industry. Department of the Environment figures show that 203 people applied for grant assistance for thatched properties in 2004; last year this number had fallen to 194.

Aside from volume, though, much depends on economics. Thatching doesn't come cheap, and can cost upwards of €40,000, with regular maintenance charges an added deterrent. Some of this outlay, though, can be recouped through State grants. For its part, the Heritage Council points to the fact that it continues to receive a healthy number of grant requests per annum and reckons that newly thatched builds are increasing. Many of these new builds are in remote areas, the council points out, so they may not be all that visible.

WHILE THERE IS LITTLE doubt that financial assistance for thatched roofs has increased significantly in the past decade, the Heritage Council highlights insurance as an ongoing issue. Many of Ireland's leading insurance companies refuse to insure buildings with thatched roofs. Four out of five leading Irish insurers contacted for the purposes of this article weren't in a position to quote for a two-bedroomed cottage with a thatched roof. The Irish Insurance Federation says that cover is available for thatched buildings, but in most cases it will include a "loading" charge, mainly because "thatch, which is a combustible material, is at greater risk from fire". The Heritage Council says there is no evidence to back up these claims.

Coupled with the insurance issue, there is also the disjointed nature of the industry in Ireland to contend with. With so many agencies, from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, to the Department of the Environment, local county councils and the Irish Heritage Council all offering individual grant schemes for thatched properties, the lack of a central agency or officer with specific responsibility for Ireland's thatching industry is problematic.

Thatchers also operate independently of each other, and there is a need for a representative organisation to articulate their views. Within the industry, some feel that demand is increasing slightly, although whether it will be enough to sustain a new generation of thatchers remains to be seen.

For thatching to survive in Ireland, perhaps the biggest challenge facing the industry is in changing attitudes. "A lot of people may have winced when Ireland was portrayed in the past with images of thatched cottages," says Colm Murray of the Heritage Council, "and that may be why it has slipped off the agenda. We may have had an ambivalent relationship with this image and we're conscious of modernising it. Deep within our subconscious, though, there is quite a connection with thatch - it's important we don't lose sight of that."