Patrick McAfee, drystone-wall builder.
Building a drystone wall incorporates a lot of things: the mental process, the physical process, and then there's also something else - people get connected with stone and get carried away. You had stone walls beginning in Ireland at the Céide Fields 5,300 years ago, and by the late 18th and 19th century there was a huge explosion in drystone-wall building, as the land began to be enclosed into fields. Then, during the Famine, you had drystone walls being made on the east coast of America and in Australia. It was not stonemasons who brought the stone walls abroad; it was people from farming backgrounds.
Stone walls have their own distinct characteristics. Their location determines a lot of things, particularly the style. It depends on the local geology and the shape of the stones. There is also variety in the abrasiveness of the stones. Some stones have a bite in them, like granite, but others are slippy. We probably have the greatest stone-walling tradition in the world.
People think it takes a long time to build a stone wall, but some of the walls are incredibly fast. You've heard the phrase "everybody should do their own stint"; a stint was how much a man would do in a day when he was building a drystone wall.
The set-up at the beginning is everything, and it's what separates the professionals from the amateurs. You put the bigger stones closer to you, and they go in at the bottom, not only for stability but also because then you don't have to lift them too high as the wall is built. It's not like a big puzzle that you work out as you go along. There are lots of rules and principles that are worked out before you start.
I served my apprenticeship with my father at stonemasonry. I specialised in lime mortars and then became interested in stone walls. Now I teach a five-week Fás course for unemployed people, which gives them a level of skill where they're confident to build one of the best walls in the world. When it's built properly it will be there in 100 years or even 1,000 years, and there's not many things you can say that about. In conversation with Catherine Cleary.
Irish Stone Walls: History, Building, Conservation by Patrick McAfee is published by O'Brien Press (www.obrien.ie), €20