Masters: Keepers of Tradition

Three old bachelors in rural Galway sent a Dutch teenager Marika Leen up onto their leaking roof. She never came down – and Ireland's thatching tradition is all the richer for it.

John Hogan never took to books, but he understood metal instinctively. When a crumbling Victorian gate at Westport House needed saving, there was only one man for the job.

One of Ireland's last horologists, Philip Stokes, tackles his most personal commission yet, restoring Cork’s “Four Faced Liar” – under the watchful eye of his 90-year-old mother.

With no training and a young family to feed, Joe Hogan gambled everything on a vanishing traditional craft. 50 years on, his baskets are in galleries from Tokyo to Clonakilty.

A young American photographer landed on Clare Island 40 years ago and never left. Now Beth Moran is sending a piece of it – woven by her own hand – all the way to Brussels.

A German stonemason came to restore the Rock of Cashel and never left. Now, Julia Gebel has 22 days to carve an Irish revolutionary's face in stone.