Making a Cart - an online exhibition

In the summer of 1972, curator John O’Sullivan and photographer Brendan Doyle of the National Museum of Ireland recorded 70-year-old wheelwright James Kelliher of Glenflesk, Co. Kerry, making a donkey cart using traditional hand tools.

The cart was finished with metal wheel rims fitted that summer by Martin Cusson, blacksmith, and Gerry Cronin, apprentice, at Muckross House forge, Killarney, Co. Kerry.

To celebrate the theme of 'Living Heritage' for National Heritage Week 2023, the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life has published a new online exhibition on the traditional methods and tools used to make a cart. The exhibition includes a step-by-step description of the process alongside imagery, and an online gallery of some of the tools of the trade.