Reviving an old Irish craft

A renowned county Mayo woodturner is helping to keep the ancient 1,500-year-old craft alive.

Willie Creighton owns and runs his own business, William Creighton Carpentry and Woodturning, situated in Aghamore, Ballyhaunis.

Willie is one of the founders of Craobh Eo Woodturners, which is a chapter of the Irish Woodturner's Guild and has 55 members across the West. The group was set up in 2004 and its main aim is to promote woodturning by providing a platform for new and experienced woodturners to enjoy their passion.

“I’m a carpenter, joiner and cabinet maker by trade myself and as I was getting a bit older I honed in on woodturning, I always liked it,” Willie says.

In addition to running a business, Willie also gives night classes in woodturning with a surge of interest from people in Mayo and beyond. He is the only carpenter and woodturner in the country upskilling secondary school teachers and pupils and his foresight was a key factor in the craft being reintroduced to the Junior Cert cycle.

“I got involved with the secondary teachers in 2004. I met them at their AGM. I brought a few pieces along that I made and I said I wanted to talk to the students,” he said. “I showed them the samples of my work and they said they would think about it.” 

Three weeks later, Pat McNamara in Rice College in Westport came back to him and said it was the teachers who needed upskilling and not the students who would be finished in a year or two.

“I took about 25 or 30 of them here in the workshop one night and I did a demonstration for them, and they were impressed by what they saw and then they broke up into smaller groups of six,” he says. “I took them then for upskilling and spindle turning and then I moved on to bowl turning.” 

Willie has visited dozens of schools in the West, as well as schools as far away as in Midleton in Cork, Killenaule in Tipperary, Kilmuckridge in Wexford, and Greystones in Wicklow.

“Going round to schools I found that we were losing the hand skills. Young people should be shown how to plain a bit of timber by hand and use the hand tools,” he says. “I’ve nothing against power tools but I think you should be starting off with the basics and then you move on from there.”

Willie, aged 65, said he is happy to upskill teachers for the Department of Education, so they are fully equipped for the Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT).

“I featured in a 17-minute video that went into all of the schools in the country,” he stated. “Last year I put 300 teachers through the system and we’re starting off again now.”

Willie insists that woodturning is coming back very strongly and he is delighted it was reintroduced to the Junior Cycle.

“During the First World War, Ireland lost a generation of craftspeople and woodturning seemed to be one of the crafts that were lost."

Willie, a native of Breaffy, Ballina and a member of Ballaghaderreen Men’s Shed, says woodturning is also a great form of relaxation and therapy. He attended the Old Technical College in Ballina for three years, served a joinery apprenticeship with Thomas Archer’s workshop, making doors, windows and staircases.

He recalls he had one day per week of class tutorials and his teacher Seamus Killeen encouraged him to go for teaching. However, Willie felt he would not be suited to teaching students who lacked interest.

"Anyone that comes here is interested in what they are doing and there is no hassle and it’s easier,” he adds.

Willie started off in his workshop with one or two lathes and has built it up gradually to 12, including a 100-year-old Kircher lathe he bought and restored after Beckett's joinery in Ballina closed. He says Ballina was one of the country’s leading areas for joiners and carpenters in the 1960s and 1970s due to the high number of joineries in the town.

Willie does spindle woodturning to help people restore and renovate old properties, and if there are five or six spindles missing from a staircase, he will make them match the originals. 

“I make a lot of trophies of Gaelic footballs. When Mayo won five Connacht titles in a row (in 2015), I made a football and presented it to the Ballina Lions Club. It was signed by the team and it raised money for the Western Alzheimers in Ballindine."

Willie says woodturning and woodwork can help people relax and it can make a positive difference in their lives.

“I was over in Castlebar with some stroke victims, and I did a demonstration and the nurse said to me ‘When your hands are working and you’re concentrating, your brain starts to work’,” he said. “I had three here in the workshop in their 50s and 60s who had strokes and it helped them.” 

Willie created a special craft piece for US President Joe Biden and met him briefly when it was presented to Mr Biden during his historic visit to Mayo in April.

“President Biden’s great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt made the bricks for the construction of Ballina Cathedral and I re-roofed the cathedral in 2000. I collected a lot of the old 190-year-old timber out of it and I made a bowl out of the cathedral wood,” he says. “I only got asked to make it on a Tuesday night and they wanted it for Friday, so it wasn’t much time, but I got it done anyway.”

Willie made a fountain pen out of wood for President of Ireland Michael D Higgins during a 2018 visit to Mayo and he also made a bowl for former president Mary Robinson. He also made a rugby ball, which he donated to the Ballina Lions Club. It was signed by all the Ireland Grand Slam-winning rugby team and management and was later sold for a "substantial sum". The money was donated to the restoration of Ballina Cathedral.

Willie is married to Margaret and is a father of three daughters - Rebecca, a teacher based on Inisheer, the smallest of the three Aran Islands; Sarah, an engineer in Galway and Fiona who lives at home and has special needs.

“Before the Covid pandemic I used to do a day in the week in Rehab care teaching kids with special needs and doing all the woodwork with them and that was very enjoyable,” he concluded.