All dolled up in Schull

Ireland’s biggest porcelain doll collection is in Schull – a labour of love for a couple who’ve decided to share it with the public by opening a museum for their 3,500 individually-named pottery ‘children’

THERE are 3,500 individually named, and individually loved, porcelain dolls housed in a rather special museum at Caherlaska in Schull.

The porcelain dolls are the property of Mary and Billy O’Keeffe who began the collection 12 years ago without fully knowing what they were getting into.

Mary recalls how she and Billy – who was in the process of quitting cigs – decided to deal with a case of cabin fever by going for a Sunday spin.

They chanced across a car boot sale, which was Mary’s first, and they spied a set of six dolls, one of which they proposed purchasing for a friend who needed something to dress a large bay window. The owner – like every person who has owned and loved a porcelain doll, but has outgrown her childhood companion , yet still finds it difficult to let go – would not sell one doll on its own.

‘They are a family,’ the owner told the couple from Schull. Mary and Billy bought all six, thinking they’d give away the other five. But Mary, who is known far and wide as an excellent seamstress and craft worker, fell for the fabric because she has had a lifelong love of textures, colours and styles.

She is adamant that the initial attraction was the riches of the fabric and the intricacies of the designs so little or no persuasion was required for them to bring all six home to Caherlaska, where they remain to this day.

They were accommodated in the spare room, but by the very next Sunday the collection had doubled.

Part of the 3,500 collection of dolls that will raise money for the Critical air ambulance service and Schull Community Hospital. (Photo: Carolos Benlayo)

‘We went again to a sale and a woman approached us saying she had a few. She told us she had them since she was 21 and wanted them all to go together.

‘She gave them to us, actually donated them. I worked on washing, brushing and plaiting their hair. Some had ringlets . I had redressed a few of them because they were frowsty,’ said Mary.

‘Word-of-mouth spread and I’m not joking but nearly every day for about six months – at the start of all of this – couriers were bringing boxes from nearly every county in the country.

‘One lady,’ she recalls, ‘was going into sheltered living. She had two beautiful porcelain dolls, twins, that she had most of her life.

‘She was in her 90s and the nursing home wouldn’t take them. Her family didn’t want them either. They went to a charity shop where one of the workers asked Billy if he would take them. He did, and we gave them a home,’ said Mary.

Soon Billy and Mary, both of whom are retired farmers in their 70s, built two rooms in their outside buildings to accommodate their rapidly expanding collection.

And now, the Porcelain Doll Museum is open to the public by appointment. And it reopens on Fridays and Saturdays from St Patrick’s Day until the end of the summer season.

Children go free but adults are given the opportunity to put a €5 donation in the collection box, which is divided equally between Schull Community Hospital and the air ambulance service, which is now called Critical.

‘We started off the first of the two rooms with an Irish Colleen collection – all ringlets, Aran jumpers and shawls. Then there are the Irish dancers with fabulous costumes.

‘Then we have the normally dressed dolls, then the ladies with their incredible ballgowns. Then, we have the nuns – five of them in different habits.

‘There’s a boys section too. They all have action faces, like tears, or injuries – boy dolls made with injuries, like broken legs. Clowns on swings are next, followed by a beautiful array of American Indian dolls in evocative costumes made out of highly-coloured fabrics, and finally, in room one, are the Scottish dolls in their traditional tartan.

The inside room houses the First Communion dolls and brides. ‘Some of the dresses you would run away with what with all the pearls, and beads and veils,’ said Mary.

When Mary says she ‘does crafts’ she really does. For years, she taught classes locally, and is still available to teach people on a one-to-one basis. In fact, she herself has made so many crafts that this summer she is planning to open a little craft shop.

Anyone who wants to see this impressive collection – which is now the biggest collection of porcelain dolls in Ireland – is politely reminded to make an appointment.

Mary and Billy have three children – Jennifer, Jeremiah and Shane – but both admit that the dolls, in terms of the time, attention and care they receive, are like children too.

‘They are all different,’ said Mary. ‘They all have a different face. And every one of them – from Jennifer who is just one inch tall to Ella who is 3ft – has a name.’

To make an appointment to view the museum, call Mary 086 2010473 or Billy 086 1534955.