Irish 13oz Tartan Fabric

Yes, there are Irish tartans. But there is no tradition of family tartans in Ireland. Instead, tartans were created in the last century for each of Ireland’s 32 old counties plus an Irish national tartan. But recently, there have been tartans designed for Irish names like Kelly or O’Neil.

Although a Celtic nation like Scotland, Ireland has no ancient tradition of a kilt or indeed tartans. The Irish kilt was developed as an army kilt during the first world war and and was – and still is – a plain kilt coloured in a mustard-type colour called Saffron. Pipe bands did much to popularise the Saffron kilt and today many Irish pipe bands around the world wear the Saffron kilt. The 33 Irish tartans that we know today were developed in Scotland only in 1996.

Both languages are the language of the Gaels, a Celtic people who settled in Ireland in the 6th century. Later, the Irish crossed today’s Irish sea to settle in Scotland. Although sometimes visually the two languages appear the same (in the same way as Spanish and Portugese look the same) when spoken they sound different. “How are you?” in Scottish Gaelic is “Ciamar a tha sibv”, whilst in Irish Gaelic it is “Cén chaoi a bhfuil sibh?”. The language names are pronounced “gay-lic” (Irish, although the Irish simply call their language ‘Irish’ as it is the national language of the country, while Scottish Gaelic is pronounced “gaa-lic” and is one of three official languages of Scotland (the others being English and Scots).