Ard Finnan

Ard Finnan Saints & knights to ladies & gentlemen. Luxury Woollen Heritage from Ireland’s Ancient East at 𝓐𝓻𝓭𝓯𝓲𝓷𝓷𝓪𝓷™
Mulcahy, Redmond & Co. Since 1869 Motoring pioneer R.J.

Weaving began at Ardfinnan with the arrival of monasteries, with Ardfinnan Abbey opening up the riverbank for pasture, where sheep produced parchement for books and wool for clothes. The monastic infrastructure was entrusted to the Knights Templar after Henry II came here in 1171 and supported possibly Ireland's oldest castle built by the Norman Crown in 1185, with Ardfinnan Castle's watermill tur

ned to fulling cloth that was woven and spun from sheep on the monastic grounds as an early woollen mill and one of the oldest in Ireland. In 1869 it was transformed from a mill that fed saints and clothed knights to a mill that clothed gentlemen. John Mulcahy was led by a vision. Ardfinnan had a strong tradition of wool spinning and weaving in the cottages surrounding the castle and the production of woollens as an early example of a vertically-integrated woollen mills, but had struggled after the devastation of the Great Famine. He saw how the Irish nation was once flourishing with the woollen industry under the Templars. By devoting himself to his labour of love with 12 employees and continuing the old-fashioned fulling methods used at Ardfinnan for hundreds of years, he was within a few years giving large employment to the skilled villagers and supported the shepherds from the banks in the river banks of the valley to the hills of the Comeragh, Galtee and Knockmealdown mountains. In days gone, the original mills on the bridge was patronised by the charitable Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller who could banquet with fresh bread in the round tower above and don themselves in warm tabards and mantle cloaks. A task of the knights was to protect pilgrims and travellers, which they welcomed openly in their great hall, giving loafs of bread and safe lodgings. The Knights Templar introduced woollen cloth fulling at the mill operating as a woollen mills in the 12th century it is said to impress the arrival of Prince John in 1185, explaining the continuous history of weaving traditions among the locals of Ardfinnan. One such local named William le Teynturer (William the Dyer) is recorded in the village in 1295. This was not the beginning of the woollen mill, for a monastic centre had been established here since the 6th century by Saint Finnan, to whom Ardfinnan is named after. It was here too that Saint Carthage took refuge and was granted the similar place of Lismore where he established his revered monastery and great centre of western learning. Indeed one of the oldest watermills in the world was uncovered downstream, also in the Suir Valley, at Killoteran, dating to the 4th century. The strategic crossing between Eastern and Southern Ireland being on the River Suir, it was one of the best trout and salmon fishing rivers in the British and Irish Kingdoms, naturally ideal for washing wool with its soft mountain water. Mrs Mulcahy's family had started the Rossmore Woollen Mills in Tipperary (once the wool mill of the Templar preceptory at Clonoulty) and the Dripsey Woollen Mills, Bluebell Woollen Mills and Glanworth Woollen Mills in Cork, a dynasty that went back to the old fulling mills. There's a story that she fell in love with the familiar picturesque scene of the medieval bridge and elevated castle as unique to Ardfinnan as Glanworth. Least to say of the Templar origins between Ardfinnan and Rossmore. Her father at Rossmore had famously exhibited Irish frieze for gentlemen's clothing and horse blankets, internationally for the first time, at the Great Exhibition in London, 1851. Frieze was the traditional Irish cloth at the time, highlighted when Daniel O'Connell wore a rugged frieze coat to represent the Irish people at his first sitting at the British parliament in London. The Ardfinnan hills were still flocked with the sheep breeds cultivated by the knights of old for their finest fleece and the locals were ready to be employed in the woollen industry once again as it began to prove ever more profitable with industrialisation. His dream having come to fruition at Ardfinnan, John retired to the castle in 1921 but sadly his wife Mrs Mulcahy had just passed away, followed by his first son Frank and then himself the following year. His grandsons were sent to Yorkshire to study textiles and return to lead the legacy. Having begun selling blankets of the finest fleece in the land, growing to supply tailoring houses in New York, London and Paris by the 1920s, it matured into the only woollen mills in Ireland completing all stages of woollen manufacture, from fleece to tailored suits in the 1940s. The hydropower from the mills electrified the village in an age of candlelight, providing lighting to its worker's new cottages and street lamps. An agricultural co-operative was set up for local farmers, followed by a Cycling and Athletics Club, handball club, tennis courts and a GAA club supported for the locality. Ardfinnan tweed was the most fashionable choice for suits in the region, with the Duke of St. Albans, writer Molly Keane, dancer Adele Astaire, Duke of Devonshire, writer Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Westminster, Count de la Poer, Earl of Donoughmore and Lord Waterford, being just a few patrons of note. Other supporters included Field Marshal Montgomery, the King of Sweden and the King of Spain. The suits and overcoats of Éamon de Valera, which he wore as President of the Council of the League of Nations, were also proudly made of Ardfinnan cloth. Perhaps most uniquely, King Edward VII, had his warmest motoring coat made out of the unique waterproof Galtee Cloth patented and woven at Ardfinnan. The King visited the mills en-route to his stay at Lismore Castle, indeed the sister castle of Ardfinnan Castle. Mecredy, first Director of Dunlop Tyres, also wore a Galtee Cloth motoring coat. In 1922 Ireland was declared a Republic and became the Irish Free State, with the mills of Ardfinnan becoming a Free State Woollen Mills, given the great task of making fabric for the new Irish army and an expanding civil service. While de Valera may have been a patron ever since having gone to the same school as the Mulcahy's of Ardfinnan, the state was patron to the mill into it's latest years and so too was the Irish airline Aer Lingus. Mulcahy, Redmond & Co. let it's employees go in 1973 after 104 without a strike, due to a competitive disadvantage, largely arising from Ireland's admission to the European free market in association with the onslaught of synthetics. Its workers protested for the first time, blaming the government. Ardfinnan Kntting Wool and knitted goods were exported abroad in the wake of the collapse of Irish woven textiles. Ardfinnan Knitting gained renown as the yarn used in the aran jumpers worn and populaised by Tipperary born American folk revival band The Clancy Brothers. Six generations later, Mr. Mulcahy leads the legacy of Ardfinnan in view of ever more sustainable and handmade Irish manufacturing principles. Still weaving and knitting small scale, we maintain our values to source a selection of Irish wool from real Irish sheep, crafted into soft scarves or fancy tweeds and finally "baptised" (milled/fulled) in the waters of the River Suir. Our generational knowledge of fabric, colour, style and lifestyle is something we feel we have a duty to share and in doing so we support and collaborate with a variety of Irish crafters to share the Ardfinnan story.

Ardfinnan Tweeds, The Dublin Leader newspaper, May, 1929.
16/07/2026

Ardfinnan Tweeds, The Dublin Leader newspaper, May, 1929.

400 MEN'S SUITS of Ardfinnan Tweed - at Sligo's BLACKROCK TAILORING CO., O'Connell Street, Sligo town, 1937.BEST GRADE N...
15/07/2026

400 MEN'S SUITS of Ardfinnan Tweed - at Sligo's BLACKROCK TAILORING CO., O'Connell Street, Sligo town, 1937.

BEST GRADE NAVY SERGE SUITS from Ardfinnan Serges.

Frank Mulcahy (1872-1920) was one of four brothers born at Mill House adjoining Ardfinnan Woollen Mills on the banks of ...
08/07/2026

Frank Mulcahy (1872-1920) was one of four brothers born at Mill House adjoining Ardfinnan Woollen Mills on the banks of the River Suir.

He went to Rockwell College and a technical school in West Yorkshire to study woollen manufacturing before taking the reins with his industrious father who sold Ireland’s premier Cheviot tweed to London and beyond.

In the 1890s he courted Kitty Crean of Clonmel, when her mother was Tipperary's premier hide tanner in Tipperary, after her late husband Richard Crean, wool and hide merchant passed on the centuries old trade of the Crean family. Kitty Crean's three uncles had been Mayor of Clonmel and her grandfather John Hackett the first Mayor of Clonmel Corporation, founder and editor of the Tipperary Free Press, a first chairman of the National Bank of Ireland and first President of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society in Ireland at Mulcahy House.

Frank Mulcahy married Kitty Crean and continued the philanthropic efforts of the Crean family (who built houses for weavers on Crean Lane in Clonmel) and was described by his contemporaries as the most passionate in his efforts to bring new housing to the Clogheen and Ardfinnan localities. He chaired the Clogheen Board of Guardians, was honorary president of the Jubilee Nurse and Red Cross in Clonmel and was the instigator behind the Ardfinnan Co-Operative.

In c.1903 he famously bought one of the first motorcars and parked it outside the mills entrance when it was on the old coach road from Cork to Dublin, attracting customers to his own patented "Galtee" motor cloth for motoring coats and the already popular "Galtee" travelling rugs made from the premium Galtee Mountain sheep of Viscount Lismore of Shanbally. Homespuns made in the Ardfinnan community were also sold and were "adapted for cyclists and tourist wear".

Frank and his brother William, "Mulcahy Bros." were also passionate cyclists and founded an Ardfinnan cycling and athletics club, followed by the handball and tennis club.

He died suddenly in 1920, after his mother in 1919 and his father followed in 1922. He left behind his wife and four children.

History by Mr Mulcahy 2026

The people behind Ardfinnan Woollen Mills in 1911:Thomas Murphy, wool scourerJames Doonar, wool weaver (Belfast)Thomas C...
04/07/2026

The people behind Ardfinnan Woollen Mills in 1911:

Thomas Murphy, wool scourer

James Doonar, wool weaver (Belfast)

Thomas Carrigan, wool warper (Dublin)

Michael O’Brien, woollen spinner

Bridget O’Brien, wool weaver

Edmond O’Brien, mill worker

Thomas O’Brien, mill worker

Michael Mahony, weaver

Ellen Dower, wool burrlein

Francis Dower, wool spinner

Nano Ryan, wool weaver

Bridget Savage, wool weaver

Margaret Grady, wollen weaver

John Cowan, wollen weaver (Belfast)

Stephen O’Brien, wool dyer

Alice O’Brien, wool carding

Dan McCarthy, weaver wool (Limerick)

Henry McCarthy, wool weaver (Limerick)

Bridget Moore, wool weaver

Walter Cooke, wool sorting

James Cook, wool weaver

Thomas Woodhouse, power loom tuner, (England)

Thomas Marchbank, tweed designer (Scotland)

Julia Marchbank, pattern tweed weaver (Cork)

James Marchbank, pattern tweed weaver (Cork)

Michael Moloney, wool weaver

Bridget Moloney, wool winder

Catherine Carrol, wool winder

Norah Carrol, wool winder

Margaret Carrol, wool winder

Jane Carrol, wool weaver

Patrick Humphreys, wool carder

Thomas Humphreys, wool carder

David Maher, woollen manufactory clerk

Hanora Power, dressmaker

Timothy Guidera, wool weaver

James Smyth, wool weaver, (Meath)

John Farrell, wool weaver, (Belfast)

John Moore, wool weaver

Michael Humphrey, wool weaver

John O’Brien, general labourer mill worker

James Maher, office clerk wool manufactory

Thomas H Carroll, Commercial Clerk , (City of Dublin)

John Burke, mill worker

James Carrol, wool weaver

Denis Hartigan, stoker

Thomas Hartigan, wool weaver

John Tigue, wool weaver, age 17, (Dublin)

Hannah O’Brien, wool winder

Bridget Curtin, wool winder

John Quinn, wool weaver

Patrick O’Neil, wool weaver (Dublin)

Robert Moore, woollen warper

Margaret Moore, mill worker

Maurice Savage, wool sorter (Cork)

Nicholas Savage, wool weaver

Cristopher Savage, finisher

Patrick Ryan, wool porter

John Ryan, wool weaver

Peter Savage, wool weaver

Mary Savage, wool winder

Maurice Savage, wool weaver

Margaret Cleary, woolbinder, (England)

William Murphy, wool weaver (England)

William Genning, wool weaver (Belfast)

Thomas Smith, wool weaver (Fermanagh)

Francis Brougham, wool weaver (Belfast)

Margaret Dowes, mill worker (Cork)

John Mulcahy, Justice of the Peace & woollen manufacturer

Frank Mulcahy, woollen manufacturer

William Mulcahy, woollen manufacturer

The house behind the "fairy-fort" and surrounded by trees was originally built as the home of mill director Jack Mulcahy...
03/07/2026

The house behind the "fairy-fort" and surrounded by trees was originally built as the home of mill director Jack Mulcahy, his wife and children.

Great aerial photo of Ardfinnan fairy fort by local photographer Gary White🧚‍♀️ 🧚‍♀️

URGENTLY WANTED: your stories and memories of the Ardfinnan Woollen Mills as part of a new documentary short film 🎬Messa...
21/06/2026

URGENTLY WANTED: your stories and memories of the Ardfinnan Woollen Mills as part of a new documentary short film 🎬
Message me or email [email protected]

We are especially interested in hearing from the older community or their relatives who have stories that have passed down with respect to anything related to the Ardfinnan Woollen Mills be it sheep farming, tailoring or working in the mill. Also of interest are memories of the Suir, the Ardfinnan handball or early GAA club, tennis courts, cycling and athletics clubs.

While I understand many in the village have passed away before their stories could be part of this documentary short film, anything that has been handed down to the next generations, stories or photographs are of huge interest to tell the Ardfinnan story.

An aim of this documentary short film is to promote Ardfinnan village with its rich history and raise awareness of the significance of local industry in rural Irish communities 🏆🐑☘️

A production by Friends of Mulcahy, Redmond and the surviving Mulcahy family for upcoming Irish film festivals 2026-2027. 💚🎬🎉🍾

Broadway and vaudeville legend Adele Astaire (Lady Cavendish), sister of Fred Astaire, in a suit of Ardfinnan tweed with...
19/06/2026

Broadway and vaudeville legend Adele Astaire (Lady Cavendish), sister of Fred Astaire, in a suit of Ardfinnan tweed with Richard Mulcahy of Ardfinnan woollen mills. Lismore Castle, c.1947.

Adele is recalled for wearing Waterford-raised famous designer Sybil Connolly’s tweed suits, but her own were made from nearby Ardfinnan tweed. She hosted Churchill, Chaplin, John F. Kennedy, Beaton and Freud as she graced her husband’s family estate of Lismore in Ardfinnan tweed. From the curtains to the blankets Ardfinnan was present. Her brother Fred took a liking to the fashionable Irish tweed but most guests were not around long enough to put in an order.

After statesman Éamon de Valera wore Ardfinnan suitings at his height in the 1930s, 1945 came with an order for Ardfinnan suitings to make the first brown uniforms of airline Aer Lingus, designed by Sybil Connolly.

In 1947 Ardfinnan introduced a ready-made suit production line and in 1948 Connolly went for green Ardfinnan tweed for the next iteration of Aer Lingus uniforms - a green tradition that remains today. A proud time for the Mulcahy family, my great grandmother had her own green tweed suit from the same cut of cloth.

Photograph, history and research provided by the Mulcahy family.

Ardfinnan tweed patrons downstream at the mouth of the river Suir at Waterford Castle, Little Island. The Fitzgerald fam...
17/06/2026

Ardfinnan tweed patrons downstream at the mouth of the river Suir at Waterford Castle, Little Island. The Fitzgerald family.

Legend says Maurice Fitzgerald was banished to Little Island 800 years ago by Strongbow but the Fitzgeralds maintained the tradition of living there ever since.

Throughout that time wool was exported past Little Island at the mouth of the river Suir through Ireland's most famous wool exporting city of Waterford. Knights Templar and Hospitaller's wool, 12th century Ardfinnan cloth, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir rateens and frieze, all exported here downstream from Tipperary.

Throughout the medieval period wool exported from Waterford was worn around Europe, cloaks, frieze mantles and tabards worn by Royalty, Popes and everyone in between that could afford the mass manufactured high quality Irish woollens.

John FitzGerald, 4th Earl of Desmond, seated at Kerry, famously died crossing the river Suir at Ardfinnan.


c.1910s colourised photographs from the N.L.I.

Luxury Irish Wool. Watch this space.
17/06/2026

Luxury Irish Wool.

Watch this space.

Address

Ardfinnan

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Ard Finnan posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Ard Finnan:

Shortcuts

Share

Category