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WEAVER'S STORY
My name is John McAtasney. I was born in 55, Sloan Street, Lurgan, Co Armagh on Wednesday 11 April 1934, the second eldest of a family of eight children, six boys and two girls.
My father John was a weaver and my mother, when they met was a cook with a local doctor. The room where I was born was right above the weaving shop which had two handlooms. These had been removed about four years before my birth because of the decline of handweaving. My father had to take a job in the factory at power loom weaving, where the weavers and the employers contributed a little each week so that a weaver could receive a little sick benefit for six weeks. The handloom weavers who could not afford this received nothing.
None of my brothers or sisters entered the weaving trade for it was the poorest paid job in Lurgan. In May 1945 shortly after leaving school with my Primary School Certificate, my mother asked Robert Crozier who had six handlooms if he would offer me a trial. He agreed. On Monday 3 May 1948, I presented myself at his weaving shop on the Gilford Road corner, adjacent to the Banbridge Road. There I found myself working with five weavers. I was told to walk about and watch them weaving but not to talk to them.
Now you must bear in mind that I had not fancied the idea of becoming a weaver, but in those days you did what you were told. The first week passed with one weaver saying to me that there was no point in learning the job as it was on the way out. On the second week, I asked an old weaver whilst he was having his tea, about how long would it take to learn the weaving. He replied to me "All your life, son, all your life." I will never forget those words.
In the third week I was given a try on a loom by Robert Crozier. This was on a Friday. We worked to 1 p.m. on Saturday and, at five to one, Bob reached into his pocket and pulled out a half‑crown, one shilling, and a threepenny bit. It was my first wage after three weeks work. In total, three shillings and nine pennies ‑ about 18 pence in today's money. I ran home and gave it all to my mother.
The fourth week I was put on a loom of my own and Bob Crozier gave me a £ 1 note. After that I was on piecework. This meant you were paid for what you wove. Anything that brake, or the loom needed setting up, you got nothing. You were only paid when the shuttle was moving, which meant you were making cloth. I soon learned the expression "when your shuttle stopped, your pay stopped.’ It was then I realized why I was not to talk to the weavers. Making cloth did not always mean it was good cloth, and twice I was fined for small faults. This is when I developed an interest in weaving because I was determined that it should be only good cloth that I make. To this day I am still of that nature.
I was with Bob Crozier for six and a half years and reached the top wage of £4.5.0. Hours of work were our own, sometimes from 7.45 a.m. to 10 p.m. and an odd all night Thursday to Friday 10 p.m. None of us could exceed £4.5.0 average. Bob Crozier closed in 1955 and I worked for Fred Monroe in Lurgan to 1960, when I moved to John McCollum, Lurgan. He closed in 1968 and that was the end of handloom linen weaving in Ireland.
I was the youngest weaver, recently married with one child, and the Ulster Folk Museum was presented with a loom and asked me would I move to Holywood, Co Down to demonstrate. It was no problem, as I wanted to show the craft, as it became to a wider audience. After ten and a half years there, I was offered the opportunity to Work in Newry, Co Down, teaching young people on a YTP scheme the knowledge of weaving. This was with Mournecraft in the place known as Work in Newry (W.I.N.) estate. There were some very promising weavers willing to learn, and hard workers. It was a very enjoyable experience and I lived nearby. I found the people of Newry very warm, friendly, helpful, and easy to get on with. I moved there in 1978 but in 1979, I was contacted by Mr Brian Mackey who was curator at Lisburn Museum. He asked me to set up a linen loom and weave it every Saturday for demonstration purposes. So I never could escape the linen business. Finally, I left Newry to land back in my home town of Lurgan in 1991, as full‑time linen weaver in the Lisburn Museum. In 1994, the new Irish Linen Centre was completed so it looks likely I shall finish my weaving in Lisburn, travelling to and from Lurgan by train. When I work to May 1998, D.V., that will be 50 years working at the one job, an achievement that I never thought would happen when I walked into Robert Crozier's in 1945.
There is something I will always do up to the very end. It is my intention to weave my cloth as well as possible ever since those days long ago when I was fined twice for small faults. Perhaps it was for the better. It really has been very strange the way things work out in life. In my first 30 years, I was paid not to talk, every movement of the shuttle across meant getting paid. Today I am paid for talking as my job means telling the public how I weave. Out of all the fabrics I have woven, linen remains the most fickle. The yam works better in damp conditions as it keeps the yarn supple and able to take more strain so every movement of the shuttle across is a challenge, and especially in the weaving of damask linen. It is then that I know that no one is born with patience. You learn it. The quickest way to do a job is to do it slowly. Speed comes. So, for anyone who wants to see an old craft that employed so many people in the past and I must add that around 99% of those who worked in the linen business did not like the work but did it out of necessity, will be able to see hand loom weaving demonstrated in Lisburn Museum, Irish Linen Centre. This is a tribute to all those good people who helped me down through the years.
John McAtasney, Hand Loom Weaver, 28 September 1997.
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History 
