He is known by his peers as the man who helped save the traditional craft of basket-making in Ireland and is widely rated as the country’s leading basket-maker. But, although he has received many awards for his work, Joe Hogan would prefer not to have any accolades heaped on him.

This softly spoken, warm man would far rather be left alone to make his beautifully woven baskets and ramble the hills in Loch na Fooey where he and his wife Dolores have lived for over 30 years. But there’s an exhibition to promote and interviews are part of the process.

Joe is taking part in the Irish Craft Portfolio 2010 show at the Kenny Gallery in Liosban, one of two Galway craft workers doing so – the other is Salthill jewellery maker Berina Kelly.

The Irish Craft Portfolio was established by the Crafts Council of Ireland in 2005 to promote quality Irish crafts. This year’s group has exhibited in Kilkenny and will be in Dublin’s Farmleigh Gallery from November, as well as in Kennys until September 9.

The benefits of being selected by the Crafts Council to be in this group is that it gives Joe freedom “to try to make stuff you fancy doing”, he explains.

And in recent years the man who originally hails from near Caltra has fancied making more abstract pieces than the baskets, creels, skibs and turf holders which initially helped create his reputation.

He did an Arts degree in UCG in the 1970s, specialising in philosophy and history before deciding to embrace basket-making.
“I wanted to do something practical. Back then, there was a big craft movement around pottery; basketry not so much,” he says.

In fact, basket-making from traditional willow and hazel rods was in serious decline by the late 1970s as new containers and cheap baskets from Eastern Europe threatened one of Ireland’s traditional crafts.

“But an ideal time to get into something is when it seems to be dying,” Joe says. “People who feel they might be the last makers of their work can be very generous.”

He recalls that when he first moved out to Loch na Fooey a local man Tom Joyce was making creels and skibs (large flat baskets, traditionally used to hold potatoes) and within a few weeks the older man was coming over to Joe’s place, teaching him how to make these items.

Similarly out in Rosroe, near Leenane there was a man who made lobster pots. Joe got one and learned how to make them before these traditional pots disappeared.

For Joe and Dolores moving to Loch na Fooey and being largely self sufficient was a shared dream. They have a 25 acre farm, with 20 acres going in to the mountain. There are four acres of arable land, and an acre is given over to willow for the basketry.

Part of the reason Joe was attracted to basket-making was that it was cheap to set up in business, unlike something like pottery which required a large outlay.

He needed willows, which he could grow – it takes two years to establish a crop, with small yields in the first year. Then all that was required was a knife, a secateurs and a bodkin – a large needle.
 

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.