If you keep an eye out, you’ll notice pottery studios cropping up in cities and towns across Ireland. You’ll spot it in a way that makes you smile windows showing shelves of mugs and bowls, a neatly stacked kiln outside, maybe the soft sound of clay being shaped inside. These days, pottery studios are quietly becoming part of the fabric of Irish towns and cities, and they’re doing more than just teaching people how to work with clay. They’re becoming spaces where people connect, create, and belong.
Ireland’s relationship with clay isn’t new. Excavations in Kilkenny revealed a medieval pottery production centre where Highhays Ware was made and traded a reminder that ceramics have been part of life here for centuries. In the 20th century, pottery businesses like Carrigaline Pottery in Cork and Arklow Pottery in Wicklow were significant local employers, shaping everyday tableware for Irish homes. And organisations like the Society of Cork Potters, founded in the 1970s, helped sustain ceramic craft communities through workshops and exhibitions. So when we talk about a “rise” in pottery studios today, it’s less a revival than a rediscovery of a craft Ireland has always had.
What’s different now is the social side of making.
Pottery studios today aren’t isolated workshops tucked away in industrial estates. They are community spaces places people choose to spend slow, social time together.
Take Tramore Pottery in Co. Waterford. Their pottery classes aren’t about making perfect pieces, they’re about people crafting together in a relaxed, supportive environment. From adult evening classes to teen sessions and private group events, clay is a way for locals and visitors alike to sit side‑by‑side, talk, learn, and have a laugh while they work.
In Dublin, Brookwood Pottery runs weekly classes every Saturday in Marino, where people can try their hand at throwing on the wheel in small groups, surrounded by beautiful handmade ceramics on display. Nearby in the city centre, places like Dublin Pottery Making offer taster workshops, handbuilding and multi‑week courses opportunities to work with clay alongside friends or new acquaintances, and build skills over a term.
Studios outside the main cities are doing similar work. WhiteBridge Pottery just outside Mitchelstown in Cork welcomes people of all ages to “come play with clay,” whether you’re trying a one‑off date night workshop, a kids’ class or a multi‑week beginners’ course. Over in Clare, Ballymorris Pottery School runs regular classes and workshops that bring people together for shared creative experiences, from beginner throwing to pottery parties. In Limerick, Lough Gur Pottery hosts themed workshops where participants make mugs or vases while soaking up the beauty of the region and chatting with others.
Many of these studios emphasise that no experience is needed, and that’s part of their appeal. There’s a gentle welcome in learning something by hand alongside neighbours you might never have met otherwise.
Part of what makes pottery studios feel like community spaces in Ireland is their deep ties to local place and tradition. At Lough Gur Pottery, the ancient landscape around Lough Gur has inspired both maker and participants connecting ancient craft with modern practice. In Galway, studios like Kinvara Pottery draw on wild Atlantic inspirations and Celtic motifs while inviting people in to learn handbuilding and decoration.
This sense of place resonates in a way that purely digital hobbies rarely do. When you shape clay in a studio overlooking sea or fields, or in a cosy city workshop, you’re engaging with your surroundings in a tactile way. You’re part of a shared moment, with fellow makers around you, and that turns pottery from an individual craft into a social experience.
What’s interesting is that pottery studios don’t just teach you to make mugs and bowls. They help knit communities together in ways that are often subtle but meaningful. You see it when someone who’s never made ceramics before arrives at their first class and meets someone else on the wheel; in the laughter that comes with a gently collapsing lump of clay; in the small pride when friends gather to admire finished pieces at a showcase event or group exhibition. Studios host private events, social evenings, and themed workshops where the creative activity is the social glue.
Even outside formal classes, there’s chatter online about where to find space to make pottery in Dublin or Cork, recommendations for evening classes, and stories of people meeting like‑minded makers. Communities form naturally when people are doing something tangible together in a way that doesn’t require screens or likes to validate it.
So the “quiet rise” isn’t quiet in the sense of being hidden it’s subtle, organic, and woven into everyday life. People aren’t just learning pottery because it’s a hobby; they’re drawn to the connection through making that these spaces provide. Whether it’s a Saturday morning class in Dublin, a week‑long course in Clare, or a paint‑and‑glaze session with a friend in Cork, pottery studios are carving out new spaces for shared creative life.
For anyone curious to explore Irish ceramics, try a beginners’ session, or just meet others while learning a hands‑on craft, studios like Tramore Pottery, Brookwood Pottery, Dublin Pottery Making, WhiteBridge Pottery, Ballymorris Pottery School and Lough Gur Pottery are great places to start.
There’s something deeply human about making with your hands among others and in Ireland today, that’s exactly the quiet, powerful work pottery studios are doing.
Thank you Andy Kelly for the image above.
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