Distinctive collection of Irish chairs on display at National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Turlough Park

16 traditional and modern interpretations of a distinctive Irish chair type feature in 'Our Irish Chair: Tradition Revisited'

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, will see a group of Irish chairs, which have been collected by the museum for almost a century, on display together for the first time.

'Our Irish Chair: Tradition Revisited' considers the place of the ‘Tuam’ or ‘Sligo’ chair in the story of Irish design through the decades.

The exhibition will feature the NMI’s full collection of 16 of these three-legged chairs.

The Tuam or Sligo chair has an enduring appeal that has inspired makers and designers for decades.

It has a triangular seat and a narrow back that is immediately distinctive. One leg extends in a single piece of curved wood to form the back of the chair.

The chairs are typically made from oak or ash and some have armrests.

The first known recording of the chair was in the Dublin Penny Journal of 1832, where it was described as ‘an ancient oak chair’ from Drumcliffe, Co. Sligo.

In 1841, the chair was also recorded in Co. Galway, as noted in Hall’s Ireland. Irish writer WB Yeats commissioned a local carpenter to make some of these chairs for the renovation of his tower house, Thoor Ballylee, Co. Galway, in 1919.

Our Irish Chair: Tradition Revisited will also explore how the tradition of making the three-legged chair has passed down through generations of craftspeople.