Ethel Kelly was digging in the back garden of her house in the village of Knockcroghery, Co Roscommon, a few years ago when her spade unearthed a profusion of unusual clay objects. She put the clay remains to one side and began digging at a number of other spots in her garden, only to unearth more and more similar objects.
The clay remains in question had a range of intriguing and historic inscriptions. Some bore phrases such as "Home Rule", "Who dares speak of '98", "Support Irish industry", "Repeal", or names such as "Parnell", "O'Brien's", "Curley's" and "Murray's". Intrigued, Ethel Kelly began piecing together the clay remains. "It became pretty obvious," she says, "that they were the remnants of thousands upon thousands of traditional clay pipes. My back garden was literally full of pipe shanks, heads and mouthpieces.
"Because of the huge amount of clay pieces, I felt there must have been some sort of major production facility in the area. So I decided to do some research and what I have found out since then never ceases to amaze me."
Visitors' centre
Through her researches, Ethel Kelly has established that the small village of Knockcroghery was a major centre for the production of traditional clay pipes since the 18th century. She has collected photos, moulds, machinery, kilns and historical accounts of pipe production in the village - including notes from one of the last of Knockcroghery's pipemakers - and brought all this material together to establish the privately run Knockcroghery Clay Pipe Visitors' Centre.
"Clay pipe production in Knockcroghery," says Ethel Kelly, "first started in the 18th century when a Scotsman and trained clay pipemaker by the name of Buckley started practising in the village. Local families joined the trade, which became an increasingly important part of village life.
"Indeed, when local supplies of the right clay for pipemaking purposes were insufficient to meet demand, clay was imported from England and Wales. Production was so widespread at one time that clay pipes from Knockcroghery were exported to the US and Australia."
The Freeman's Journal of June 21st, 1890 carried an account of clay pipe production in Knockcroghery. While discussing the merits of the manufacturing system at the premises of William Curley, Pipe Manufacturer, the reported noted: "The rapidity with which this process is carried on is bewildering and may be imagined from the fact that between 300 and 500 gross of pipes - taking the average of 400 gross = 57,600 pipes - per week are manufactured."
With the growth of cigarette smoking, clay pipe production in Knockcroghery began to be scaled down in the early years of this century. However, one terrible event ended, almost overnight, the village's long-standing industry.
Burned to the ground
On June 23rd, 1921, The Irish Times carried a small report that the village of Knockcroghery "with the exception of three houses" was "burned to the ground" by a party of "disguised and armed men" who let off "constant fusillades of rifle and revolver firing". It went on: "The village presents a shocking appearance, being a mass of smouldering ruins, with the occupants of the houses homeless and destitute, all their belongings being consumed in the general conflagration."
In fact, the "disguised and armed men" were four lorryloads of Black and Tans, RIC men and Auxilaries who were probably seeking vengeance for the assassination of a General Lambert in the region some days previously. Whatever their reasons, the result of their notorious run through Knockcroghery meant the local pipemaking industry had literally gone up in smoke.
What the raiders did, Ethel Kelly is determined to undo. "In September," she says, "I hope to restart clay pipe production in Knockcroghery and, hopefully, be in a position to sell the pipes in the visitors' centre next summer. Clay pipes are a unique part of our heritage and should not be forgotten."
"Pipesmoker's clench"
But those who may feel inclined to smoke a clay pipe should bear in mind the following information, published in a recent edition of the Bulletin of the Irish Association of Professional Archaeologists concerning the 17th-century skull of a man found at the site of a German Lutheran church on Poolbeg Street, Dublin.
The report noted the skull had "an unusual wear pattern" on its anterior teeth. In three places, the teeth were "worn down to the root on one side" and this created "semi-circular" depressions between the teeth. "This is a phenomenon known as `pipesmoker's clench'," the report stated, "consistent with the habitual pipe-smoking and the retention of a clay pipe in the mouth, clenched between the teeth even when unlit."