In the summer of 1972, curator John O’Sullivan and photographer Brendan Doyle of the National Museum of Ireland recorded 70-year-old wheelwright James Kelliher of Glenflesk, Co. Kerry, making a donkey cart using traditional hand tools.

The cart was finished with metal wheel rims fitted that summer by Martin Cusson, blacksmith, and Gerry Cronin, apprentice, at Muckross House forge, Killarney, Co. Kerry.