Think you know a blackberry stitch from a herringbone weave, the four Bs of beekeeping, or how to trap an eel using a handful of twigs? No worries if not – with this show, you’ll be an old hand in no time.
Airing on RTÉ between 1978 and 1989, Hands documented Ireland’s endangered crafts and customs over 37 half-hour episodes. Not only is it considered one of the most cherished series in all of Irish television, it remains a fascinating archive of Irish rural life at the end of the 20th century.
In the 1970s, documentary power couple David and Sally Shaw-Smith hopped in their camper van and set out for the rugged and remote corners of Ireland in search of traditional craftspeople. From thatchers and coopers to potters and weavers, they filmed everyday artists at work for fear that their practices, often passed down from one generation to the next, would be forgotten as the country lurched into the computer age.
David Shaw-Smith on the Late Late Show in 1984
Unable to afford to film and interview simultaneously, David would first turn up with a tape recorder. He’d ask the craftsperson to run through their process, from raw material to finished article, returning the next day with a drawn-up shot list ready to shoot. When they sat down for a follow-up interview – intended for the voiceover – the rapport formed during the weeks of filming allowed for a more relaxed chat. By then, David says, “They realised that I was completely genuine, that I wasn’t trying to hoodwink them and make a quirky film like an American might make.”
Not only is it considered one of the most cherished series in all of Irish television, it remains a fascinating archive of Irish rural life at the end of the 20th century.
Based on my description so far, you wouldn’t be blamed for expecting Hands to play out like an analogue version of How It’s Made – less conveyor belts, more calluses. Behind the series’ educational heft, however, you’ll find a wondrous meditation on devotion, for Shaw-Smith understood a key rule of television: from Miss Marple to Postman Pat, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as observing someone carrying out their job with extreme efficiency. In episode six, watch Kilmainham Mill’s master weaver Frank Gillespe work his loom by hand and foot, and tell me you don’t feel the radiant precision of a church organist playing to the heavens.
That extraordinary attention to detail extends to the filmmaking. With David behind the camera, Arthur Keating on editing duties, and experimental composer Jolyon Jackson providing score, the series conjures an hypnotic spectacle out of the minutiae of clean country living. Slow but never dull, at once earthy and ethereal, should Hands return to RTÉ Player, you’d likely find it listed under Celtic Psychedelia, alongside Manchán Magan’s back catalogue and the Covid-clouded fever dream that was Marty in the Shed.
In 2013, the original film reels of Hands, which had spent decades sitting in a barn at the Shaw-Smith home in Co Mayo, were transferred to the RTÉ Archives for safekeeping. Inside those 1,800 cans of film you’ll find 37 vivid tributes to the imagination and resilience of Ireland’s craftmakers – and just as many reminders of why I should’ve listened to my parents when they told me to learn a trade.
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