James Mullholland, Basketmaker

This short documentary film, made by Roy Spence for the Ulster Folk Museum, focuses on the work of master willow-weaver, James Mulholland of Gawley’s Gate, Co. Armagh. The film traces the various stages in the making of a willow log basket from cutting the raw willow rods through to the completed product.

Roy Spence is an award-winning amateur filmmaker. For the past 50 years, Spence has been making and screening a series of remarkable and sometimes eccentric films in his cinema in Comber, Co. Down. The films span many genres from sci-fi to horror to folk-life documentaries shot between 1965 and 1986. His collection of over 40 films (13 documentaries/non-fiction and 29 fiction feature films) is held and preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. To watch more of the Roy Spence Collection click here.