F:1931.114

Provenance: An Caithrín, near Tourmakeady, Co. Mayo. Maker: Thomas Durkan. Made from mixed hardwoods, oak and ash.

Thomas Durkan (Tomás ‘ac Dhuarcáin) was a cooper, a carpenter and seanchaí (storyteller) of Tourmakeady. Durkan believed that the chair was formerly made from the 'seven woods of the Cross', that is, the cross on which Christ was crucified. This is a late Christianised survival of a pre-Christian traditional belief relating to the folklore of trees.

‘T. Durkan’ is stamped a number of times on this chair with a steel punch that Tom had used during his shipbuilding days in Scotland in the second half of the 19th century.

This chair was presented to the National Museum of Ireland in 1931 by Colm Ó Lochlainn,  a publisher and a Gaelic scholar.