Sure, it's always sweater weather in Ireland

My signature clothing items are scarves and sweaters. I like shopping for them. I have a lot of both. And wear them all the time.

I haven't done any counts, but I'm pretty sure I have more than a hundred sweaters, more than a hundred scarves.

This includes all seasons, and - especially when it comes to sweaters - a fairly elastic definition of what constitutes, say, a sweater.

Does my black cashmere three-quarter-length-sleeve boat-neck sweater (worn pretty much the same way I'd wear a shirt) count as a sweater in the same way that my blue floral intarsia sweater with buttons (worn pretty much the same way I'd wear a jacket) counts as a sweater?

Or the same fuchsia zip front Irish knit hoodie I bought in Dublin last fall does?

I love that fuchsia zip front, one of two Irish knit sweaters I own.

My other one is a bluish green button-front sweater I got in Galway a few years back.

Neither of my Irish sweaters is all that high quality. The bluish green number has been pilly since the get-go. I have plenty of other sweaters that are much nicer (and cost a lot more). But I like my Irish sweaters just fine, as I tend towards mostly liking things Irish, starting with music and literature, and drifting on down to foodstuffs. (No to Tayto Scampi Crisps, YES to Kerry Gold Butter.)

I had a mixed - but mostly positive - reaction to The Banshees of Inisheerin. I loved the actors, the scenery, the music, and the donkey. And loved the fact that the priest (a minor character) was the spit and image of my late cousin Charlie. But that thing with the fingers....

The only thought that registered with respect to the fashion was my reaction that no poor young woman living in a backwater's backwater in Ireland in the 1920's would have had two winter coats, as Siobhán did in the film.

I did not notice the sweaters, but then saw an article about Delia Barry.

Barry, who received a movie credit at the great and wonderful age of 83, was playing bingo when the NY Times caught up with her.

When not at bingo, Ms. Barry is usually knitting. Four of her sweaters appear in the Oscar-nominated film “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which is set on a fictional island in 1923, toward the end of the Irish civil war. These include a navy roll-neck and a red pullover with a distinctive long collar, both worn by Colin Farrell; a thick blue knit worn by Brendan Gleeson; and a purplish ribbed fisherman’s sweater worn by Barry Keoghan. (Source: NY Times)

Since the movie came out, Barry's story has "gone viral on Instagram and TikTok, where teenagers and 20-somethings have shown off their attempts to recreate her designs."

Delia Barry has been at knitting since she learned at age seven while in school in County Tipperary. Like many Irish people, she spent some time living in England, but made her way back home, to her husband's hometown in County Wicklow.

Ms. Barry knitted throughout her marriage, she said, but her commitment grew when her husband died in 2010, and she began knitting to raise funds for Greystones Cancer Support. “They were very good when he was diagnosed,” she said. She donated a portion of her film earnings to the organization. “You never know when you’re going to need them,” she said.

She spends a many hours a day knitting, which she finds "therapeutic."

“When you’re living on your own, it’s nice to have something to do,” she said. She knitted the sweaters for “The Banshees of Inisherin” during one of Ireland’s pandemic lockdowns, spending a week on each. “It kept me sane,” she said.

Barry is no stranger to show biz. Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh, costume designer for Banshees:

...came across Ms. Barry’s work when she was sourcing knitwear for a 2017 television adaptation of “Little Women.” A woman working on the production knew that Ms. Barry had helped on other films, including “Dancing at Lughnasa,” for which she created knitwear for Meryl Streep’s character.

“Ireland is very small,” Ms. Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh said, laughing. “It’s all word of mouth.”

When it comes to knitting, Barry walks without a tightrope: she doesn't need a pattern. For Banshees, she used a magnifying glass to study photos of Irish fishermen that dated back to the 1920's. And she figured it out from there. (Interesting: once Barry finished a sweater, it was passed on to a group to be distressed so it wouldn't look brand new.)

Barry is enjoying the late-in-life attention, but admits that she would have preferred it to occur earlier, maybe 20 years ago. Nonetheless, she's glad of it, and is proud and happy to still be in the game. She's working with Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh on another movie. 

“Because you get older, it doesn’t mean that you’re not useful anymore,” Ms. Barry said. “There’s a lot we can do, if we want to.”

Good on ye, Delia. I'm with you there. 

And I'll be with Delia Barry in rewatching Banshees. She'll be watching it again because when she saw it for the first time, she was understandably focusing on the "jumpers" she'd knitted, not on the acting, the scenery, the donkey, the fingers, or the priest who looked like my late cousin Charlie. I'll be watching the second time around to check out her sweaters. 

I'll be in Ireland in May. Maybe I'll see if I can up my game and find a Delia Barry sweater.