Ireland’s Thatched roofs-an endangered species

An article in the NY Times talked about how thatched roof cottages are disappearing in Ireland. (http://nyti.ms/1SE70dRA) Short and Unhappy Courtship takes place in the fictional village of Lough Key in southwest Ireland and features the classic thatched roof Irish homes.

I went to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park in County Clare.  I loved the whitewashed buildings and thatched roofs.  It seemed so idyllic; the church and pub both central to the community and its identity.  A place that was self-sufficient and interconnected.

I know that’s nineteenth century romanticism, and I am a historian first, so I shelved the nostalgic Darby O’Gill image.  Life isn’t a Hollywood musical, nor is the past perfect.  Lough Key got real, becoming a village of single roomed dwellings where multiple generations lived and worked together.  Privacy was rare.  So were floors.

I wanted Lough Key to feel authentic, like a place a person would wander through on their way to someplace else.  Adding in the Irish folklore strengthened how life would have been for those living during the Tithe War.  People in the 1830’s prayed to their Catholic God but were also careful not to bother the ancient ones.  The novel is a snapshot into a time long past in a country that battles against British oppression and occupation for centuries.

However, I’d assumed all the quaint cottages from the early nineteenth century had been updated since then.  Mostly because I couldn’t imagine families of the twenty-first century living in a one or two room house with dirt floors like they had 200 years before.  But they hadn’t.  Instead as the country grew and expanded, the cottages were simply abandoned for bigger houses; places cheaper to maintain and closed to the elements.

This means that one of the most quintessential images of Ireland; the white-washed, thatch roofed cottage is on its way out.  If there was an endangered architecture list like there is endangered species lists, I think that the Irish cottages would be up there with elephants and lions!

The New York Times article by Brian Lavery called Thatched Irish Roofs are Falling Down showed that the statistics are grim.  So, I suddenly find myself more open to damp, dirt floors and close quarters.  I’ve survived more primitive accommodations up in the north woods!

What do you think?  Would you give it a try?