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Frequently asked questions
Joseph are you Irish?
Yes. I was born in Derry 1960 and grew up in county Tyrone. My father came from near Raphoe in county Donegal and my mother from Ardkill in county Derry. My Surname Tinney is an anglicisation of the Irish name Mac in tSionnaigh which means son of the fox. I left Ireland in 1986 to work in Germany and married Ingrid and together we have three children Dan, Hannah and David. Tinney's Irish Shop had lift-off in 1991 and our Tinney's Online Irish Shop in January 2003.
Is everything in your Irish Shop made in Ireland?
This question is both simple and difficult!
It is simple to say "no not everything is made in Ireland" but difficult to qualify this statement to my satisfaction.
I can give you a couple of examples:
- a product may be produced in Ireland but the material may be sourced outside Ireland eg a sweater, but the wool may come from Australia.
- Or a product may be bought from an Irish company which has sourced some of its products outside Ireland, I have difficulty knowing. One must always remember Ireland is a small country, and not all products can be produced there.
- For example I know of only one company today actually spinning wool in Ireland using Irish wool...surprised?
However here is our promise is we do source first in Ireland and we are comitted to craft producers in Ireland. Failing to find the proper mix of quality and price we might browse further afield Scotland or even Brittany, but anything we offer will be complementing the irishness of the collection.
Why are there these problems in Northern Ireland? We just don't understand!
Let's keep this one, for the time-being short. As you all know the simple and honest truth is rarely honest and never simple!! Irish understanding of history has a pivotal role in most countries where history is in the making (ref.Israel and Palestine!)
In Northern Ireland, it is very forceful living thing, because it is perceived to be in the making. The mere memorising of facts and figures is secondary to the Irish understanding of history. Emotional qualities are conveyed through the telling of Irish history, it is masterfully sung about and it is visually portrayed on gavel walls. It involves people, it involves everyone. It is part of comunity consciousness. Colour has its political connotations Green for the nationalists orange for the Unionists. However if you are in an area where green white and orange is painted then you are in a nationalist area (colours of the Irish Flag), in an area where red white and blue, then you are in a Protestant area (colours of the british flag) A good friend, Tommy Kelly has been involved in painting in the Bogside community of Derry. Here in 1968 civil rights heros like Bernadette Devlin have become larger than life icons on gavel walls. Unresolved facets of Bogside history like Bloody Sunday are icons of the community. The deaths of the innocent like Annette McGavigan are more than a mere gravestone. Click here to have a look at the Bogside Murals. From all this you can see the struggle of the Nationalist people to remove the political presence of the British from the island is "happening" and is seen to be happening today and everyday. The story has similarities in the Loyalist and Unionist communities. They too are living their history. The unionist community history has been the struggle to maintain dominance in Northern Ireland, and has ended up as the struggle for survival as a cultural and political identity. The protection of their "britishness" is their priority number one. I believe that both of these peoples may live their aspirations together and without violent confrontation. I am fully convinced that there is misfortune in the legacy these peoples have inherited, but that too may be transformed. Wouldn't it be fine if the Orange Order, instead of parading and speechmaking, would turn around and say "we are not celebrating our triumph over you but rather celebrating our survival as a people, come and celebrate with us". Christian principles of forgiveness and reconciliation would be practised and not merely given lip-service. Ireland has traditionally been a religious place for both Catholics and Protestants. In the last thirty years many have developed an ambiguous atitude to religion. Some blame it outright for all that went wrong in Irish History. The ambiguity consists in the fact that the people wear their religion as a badge of identity, but kernals of these religions is of secondary importance and not really to be taken too seriously. I once heard a man say "God said to love your enemies, yes, but he didn't say you shouldn't fight them" and that came from a man in a pulpit!!! I believe each Irish man and woman and child in Ireland or abroad can discover their diversity not as a threat but as an enrichment and to that end History must be written today for today and tomorrow.
Jump straight into our Online Irish Shop from here
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