 Afternoon now, International Tweed Day, you may not have been aware of that, but every year International Tweed Day shines a light on a fabric that is synonymous with Donegal. Donegal Tweed is characterised by very distinctive flecks of colour and very popular with international fashion houses and designers at the moment. Now Kieran Malloy is a sixth generation weaver with Malloy and Sons and is among a number of Donegal Tweed businesses that are working to secure what's called Protected Geographical Indication or PGI for short as a special status for Donegal Tweed. And Kieran now joins us and we're streaming live as well, hopefully does Kieran, can you hear me? Yep, I can John. Very good, well thanks for taking a bit of time out to explain this to us and it's I can wish you a happy International Tweed Day but anyhow, tell us what Protected Geographical Indication is and why you're keen that Donegal producers get it. So at present the EU has this PGI system in place for foodstuffs or like agri products like for example Champagne can only be produced in the Champagne region of France or Parma Ham in and around Parma in Italy or in Waterford there's the Waterford Blah so that those products can only be produced within a certain area and if it's a similar product can be made outside that area but it cannot be called Waterford Blah or Champagne. So the EU now is to protect the integrity of the product. Yes so that you know that when you're buying that it is the genuine product like at the minute someone else can be making a wine that's very similar to Champagne but if it's not made within the region you can't call it Champagne. So what the EU now are proposing to bring in is a similar system for craft products so that then those products can be protected in the same way. So that for example if Donegal Tweet gets protected then it will mean that only producers following a certain route certain like processes within the country will be able to call Donegal Tweet. And for a start you're going to have to be based on Donegal. Yes well that would that would be a big help whereas at the minute there's like there's fabric mills in Italy or the UK or China or all over the world and they would produce their so-called Donegal Tweets and they're treating it as just a style where they're making a fabric that has like some flex or maybe a plain weave fabric and they're just saying Donegal as a description. So hopefully if this happens then it'll just be producers within Donegal who are following the set terms and processes and it will be a big benefit for all of us. What makes Donegal Tweet unique? It's not just the little flex is it? Well the little flex of colour is the defining characteristic but it's a woven fabric so it's not like a knitted fabric it's like has to be woven on a loom and it's normally like a woolen fabric but it could be like wool or it could be cashmere or like other stuff and it's a woven fabric made in Donegal with the little flex. The flex is very important that's like the defining characteristic. It's all mechanical anymore, there's no weavers sitting in dark rooms. But we have power looms, we don't have hand looms but there are still like students in Goll or Eddie Daherty or a few other hand weavers that are still weaving on wooden looms and I think McGee's do a little bit as well and both us and McNuts would be just power looms. It's a great time for Donegal Tweet because of all the exposure, the batches of any shearing, Donegal Tweet, the front and centre there, you know you might think that's a good or a bad thing but listen, a huge publicity, Sarah Jessica Parker has been you know not shy in wearing a bit of it and who was a Pierce Brosnan recently, so it's all, it's good. Yeah like in general I think now after Covid the whole people have started to want to dress up again, they want to buy some jackets, they want to wear their suit to events, they don't want to be wearing their tracky bottoms anymore, they're trying to get more dressed up and that's obviously going to help the industry and in turn like a bit more publicity for us, more designers internationally being interested in buying fabrics. You're different to say McNuts or McGee's in that you don't make the garment but you supply the material to designers to make whatever they're looking for. Our business is like maybe 80% would be export and it's fabric that we're selling to fashion brands or tailors so they'll buy our like rules of our fabric and then they'll make up jackets or coats or suits or waistcoats hats or also interiors then. And you export all around the world? Yeah all around the world so like we'd sell to America, Japan, China, South Korea, the UK, Italy, France, Germany, yeah so but it's always it's always been an export kind of focused industry like so I'm the sixth generation but say my the first two first two generations would have just been weaving for the local area whereas my great-granduncle and great-grandfather would have started Export and Donegal Tweed in the 20s once Ireland became Free State and had like a showroom on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1923 like a warehouse and a meatpacking district and even back then it was always export focused. Right right and it would be good as well for the designers and those that are making the clothes because then it will you know they'll get um they'll have confidence that it will be genuine Donegal Tweed that's that you know that's assuming that this that you do get the the PGA status? Yeah like that's it will be a big help for us because at the minute we're selling our authentic Donegal Tweets but then they're the same fashion brand might look at another fabric from let's say Portugal and it's been called Donegal and they'll be like well it's a bit cheaper from there whereas if it's protected and they know that it's the genuine authentic product woven in the county it'll be a big help definitely and also add more story to them selling their government so that they can be like well this fabric was woven in Donegal by these two guys on the side of a hill in Ardra. Yeah well or wherever I mean this is EU sort of expanding from food and drink and and now into into fabric there's a good chance that this will go through isn't there but just maybe a lot of paperwork and we put a pressure. Yeah like they've been talking about doing this for I think it's maybe about 10 years ago since I was in Brussels like over for a meeting about it and it's just the the bureaucracy goes very slowly and it will like we were like 90% sure it'll happen maybe a little bit more but it's still it's still going to take a while it's not going to happen like next week or in two weeks it's still going to be probably another year or so before it would actually get implemented and in the meantime we have to kind of know what we want to be protected and have like we've been having meetings between us us and McGee's, McNott's, Studio Donegal and you're already like to try and keep the pressure. Figure out what exactly is Donegal tweet and what we think it should be like how it should be described because it'll have to be for it to be implemented it will have to follow certain stages certain production processes will have to happen within the county and yeah so we're fairly sure it'll happen but it's still like another while down the road but then each you will have your own unique type of a tweet I would imagine or maybe make it to order would you? I mean if we each have our own styles like we have our own designs and patterns and colors and that we sell to our customers and let's say some of the other weavers they'll have their own styles maybe we'd be more men's we're focused maybe some of the other brands might be a little bit more women's we're focused and they're just it can still be considered Donegal tweet even though there's an awful lot of variation within the fabrics the colors and the styles that we're making. If there's visitors over in France and in the Champagne region I want to see some Champagne being produced I'm sure that there's visitor centers and so on where they can go and see that and have a wee sample. Does the same apply to for Malois when it comes to Donegal Tweed? Well hopefully yeah. So if visitors are in the region over the summer can they is there is there a visitor center and can they go along? Not exactly a visitor center but we do have a factory that people could come to pop in and have a look at what we do. Is it a Done thing is it invited or is it if somebody knocks on the door and and want to see it is it well it's okay you can come on ahead and have a look. Bit of both. Okay okay well listen I could look with a campaign on on the day that's in it international tweed day and and I hope it's successful as you say you know this isn't going to happen overnight but it's in the process and hopefully you'll be successful. Kieran. Yeah. Thanks a million. Thanks much John. Cheers.