Museum of the Sea opens Knots and Nets, an exhibition of maritime crafts

Suspended from the ceiling of the grand hall at the Museum of the Sea is a drift net nearly 30 metres long. It was mended so many times that curators counted at least four different twines in its mesh, each one the work of a different pair of hands. It sets the tone for Knots and Nets, which opened to the public this week and runs into next summer.

The exhibition gathers more than 300 objects, about a third of them lent by Wrenhaven families who still had gear in lofts and sheds. There are needles carved from whalebone and boxwood, sailors' ropework presented as love tokens, cork floats and pattern books in which net-makers recorded mesh sizes for different catches.

Halima Brandt, the curator, said the starting point had been a simple question about what had disappeared from the quay within living memory. "Fifty years ago there were nine net lofts on Old Quay," she said. "Today there is one. The knowledge did not vanish, but it moved into kitchens and garages, and we wanted to bring it back into view."

Hands on the twine

Visitors are encouraged to touch. A long bench at the centre of the hall holds practice frames where anyone can try a sheet bend, the knot at the heart of every hand-made net, under the guidance of volunteers. On most afternoons a retired net-maker sits at the bench, working on a full-size repair.

You learn the knot in your fingers first and in your head a long time after.

Alfie Corrigan, who began mending nets at fourteen and worked in the last Old Quay loft for four decades, said he had been surprised by how quickly children picked up the movement. Several had returned the next day with their parents to show them how it was done.

One room is given over to the women of the net lofts, who did much of the braiding but rarely appear in harbour records. Photographs, wage books and recorded interviews with former braiders trace how the work was passed between mothers, daughters and neighbours, often at kitchen tables after the children had gone to bed.

Entry is free for under-18s and €8 for adults. The museum is also running evening classes in decorative ropework, which sold out within two days of being announced; a second series is planned for later in the season.