John Maguire Tweed Hat

**TheOfficialBren** · 21st August 12, 11:44 PM

Hello, all. I know that this is a bit out of the "kilting" realm but here it goes; when I was a boy, I received a vintage hat from Donegal, Ireland made by a weaver named John Maguire, as indicated by the tag inside the hat. It is a very nice hat that I am still able to wear.

My question is this:
Does anyone know anything about this gentleman's work? I admire the quality and craftsmanship and I am having no luck googling him.

Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

-Bren

ith:

**ThistleDown** · 22nd August 12, 12:27 AM

Hello, Bren. Just here to add a "w" to Teed in the title of your thread. Best wishes in finding John Maguire; if anyone can help you he will be found here

**TheOfficialBren** · 22nd August 12, 12:37 AM

Oh! Thank you.

**Chas** · 22nd August 12, 04:03 AM

How about a picture of the hat and a picture of the label? It will give us something to work from. A possible time-line would also help. When did you get it and was it new? Questions, questions, questions - we need to know everything!

Regards

Chas

**Steve Ashton** · 22nd August 12, 09:43 AM

John Maquire is a weaving company in Ireland. They produce some of the best Donegal Tweed fabrics that I know of.

Donegal and Harris are the two most recognizable names when speaking of Tweed fabrics. Both can be thought of more as brand names than as describing a particular type of fabric like we would say, Denim. Donegal is fabric woven in the Donegal County of Ireland while Harris describes fabrics woven in the Hebrides by the Harris Group.

Tweed is a name we today associate with a type of fabric but originally the term Tweed came to us by mistake. The Scottish word Tweel means a twill woven fabric instead of a plain woven fabric. One story tells us of a fabric store in London that received a hand written letter from a firm in Hawick Scotland advertising some Tweel. The London store mistook the handwriting to mean a new trade name of fabrics woven on the Tweed River in the Border region and we have called this type of fabric Tweed ever since.

Harris Tweed is the brand name of a group of fabrics woven exclusively on the islands of Harris, Lewis, Uist, and Barra. Backed by The Countess Dunmore as a local and sustainable industry The Harris Group was established.
In the 1930's, to encourage local weaving using local materials and home labor, the Govt. of Ireland distributed spinning and weaving machinery in Donegal County to encourage the same local and sustainable type of industry there.

So both Harris and Donegal describe a fabric more by where and how it is woven than it does the type of fabric itself.

I have some Donegal Tweed woven by John Maquire here in my shop and was producing my Kilt Jackets from it. I prefer the lighter and finer weaves of Donegal with their distinctive flecks over the fabrics from Harris. But that is just a personal preference.

It is possible that John Maquire manufactured items from their fabrics at one time but I find no made up items available today.

See if the caps offered by Magee are similar to the one you have.

http://mageeireland.worldsecuresyste...tion/mens-caps

**SlackerDrummer** · 22nd August 12, 10:09 AM

Is it possible that the hat is labeled to show the authenticity of the fabric (instead of or in addition to the manufacturer of the hat) the same way Harris Tweed items come with a label?

**TheOfficialBren** · 22nd August 12, 06:52 PM

Excellent! Thank you, Steve.

Here are some images:

**Steve Ashton** · 22nd August 12, 07:33 PM

Bren,

For future reference ----

When you want to link to a photo hosted on a service like photobucket you do not need to use the HTML coding. You only need use the address that starts with http and ends with .jpg. Then enclose that address in Image brackets. i.e. [IMG]http://the address of your photo.jpg[IMG]

**TheOfficialBren** · 22nd August 12, 08:39 PM

Thank you for the photo help, Steve.

**TheOfficialBren** · 22nd August 12, 10:08 PM

The hat was given to me as a gift when I was about 14. I am 27 now and it still fits great!
It was already old when I received it.

Thank you, everyone, for your help.

:-)