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Recent Posts
- Celebrating Irish Grandparents
- Lughnasa: The Irish Festival Celebrating the First Fruits of Fall
- Go West: Explore the Wild Atlantic Way
- The Gift of an Irish Name
- How to Spot an Irish Dad
- Trees Are Life: Irish Gifts with Deep Roots
- Ireland's Glorious Greens
- Ancient Irish Wedding Traditions
- Is Guinness Brewery the Heart of Dublin ?
- Our Patron Saint’s Famous Cathedral
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The Surprising Story behind Belleek Irish Gifts
IrishShopShare
Belleek Irish Gifts for you and yours.
Beautiful Belleek Parian china exudes elegance and luxury. The delicate shamrock designs on the luminously glazed pieces are an iconic symbol of Ireland, quite different from folksier motifs. These are prestigious, treasured Irish gifts. Nothing about today’s Belleek Irish Gifts reflects poverty, hunger or deprivation, but if you trace the roots of this beloved line that is where they lead.
The famous china company is located in a tiny village of the same name with fewer than 1,000 people nestled near the River Erne. Belleek is in County Fermanagh in Ulster. It’s a border county, officially part of Northern Ireland but bordered on three sides by the Republic of Ireland. Tucked below Donegal and above Sligo, it is arguably one of the most under-appreciated places on the island of Ireland.
When the Great Hunger came, Belleek was not spared the loss of the critically important potato crop. The village did not have the sort of industry other parts of Ulster did, such as the famous linen mills. The famine was its worst in 1847, and one local landowner wanted to do something to help the community. In 1849, John Caldwell Bloomfield inherited some land and promptly had a geological survey done. The land offered exactly what was needed to make pottery – clay, flint, feldspar, kaolin and shale – and it was near the River Erne – a crucial source of power for the mill required to grind the clay and stone. Bloomfield lobbied hard and managed to get a rail line run into the little village so the pottery could be easily shipped out. Everything was in place and production began. The Great Hunger was over, but employment was still desperately needed.
See all of our Belleek Irish Gifts here