Our Fabric Partner: Molloy & Sons Donegal Tweed
At Jack Murphy Ireland, exceptional outerwear begins with exceptional cloth; and when that cloth is tweed, we look no further than home. We weave with Molloy & Sons, a family mill on the Atlantic coast at Ardara, Co. Donegal, where six generations of one family have been making authentic Donegal Tweed since the nineteenth century.
When you wear a Jack Murphy Donegal tweed garment, you are wearing cloth woven in the very landscape that gives it its name; the hills, the heather, and the shifting light of the Donegal coast, all spun into rich colours and textures. This is not tweed in the style of Donegal. It is the real thing, woven in Donegal.
Six generations on the Donegal coast
The molloy story begins with Edward molloy, who took up hand weaving in Donegal in the 1800s. For the first two generations, the family wove by hand for their own community. The cloth travelled no further than the local area.
Everything changed in the 1920s, when the third generation began exporting across the Atlantic. At one point, the family kept a showroom on Fifth Avenue in New York, directly opposite the New York Public Library. A remarkable reach for a small mill on the western edge of Europe.
Their reach extended far beyond America, with one early order from the mill of up to 22,000 m of cloth destined for Japan.
The business later divided into two distinct areas, with one side focusing on knitwear and the other continuing the tradition of weaving, the branch we are proud to work with today.
Today, Molloy and Sons is run by sixth generation weaver Kieran Molloy, alongside his father Sean, continuing a family tradition that stretches back more than a century.
Over the years, the mill has steadily modernised, combining generations of traditional weaving knowledge with modern technology and production techniques.
From the outside, the operation may appear modest, resembling a traditional farmhouse with two barns, yet behind those doors lies a highly skilled weaving business producing exceptional Donegal Tweed, with craftsmanship that can stand alongside renowned textile centres across the world.
What makes Molloy and Sons particularly special is its scale. Unlike larger textile manufacturers, the family remains personally involved in the weaving process, ensuring that the quality, character, and authenticity of their Donegal Tweed are maintained.
The Fleck: What Makes Donegal Tweed Unmistakable
Hold a piece of Donegal tweed to the light, and you will see it at once: scattered across the cloth, tiny flecks of colour. A dab of red here, a fleck of blue or gold there, set against the soft, heathered ground. This is the nepp, and it's the signature of Donegal tweed. No other cloth in the world wears a colour quite this way.
Those are not printed or added at the end. They are spun into the yarn itself. Drawn from the colours of the Donegal landscape: The russet of bracken, the purple of heather, the grey-green of the Atlantic under cloud. It is a colour with a sense of place.
The result is a cloth with a rugged, characterful hand, substantial enough to keep out an Irish wind, yet soft enough to live in every day. And because every fleck is woven through rather than applied. A Donegal tweed garment never looks flat or uniform. Its depth, movement, and a quiet richness that only natural fibres spun and woven with care can give
Woven Under One Roof in Ardara
Molloy & Sons is one of only a handful of mills that can genuinely claim to make authentic Donegal Tweed. They make it almost entirely in-house. The yarns are spun and dyed locally, and from there, the colour matching, designing, warping, weaving, and dispatching all happen within the mill's own walls.
This end-to-end control is what allows the family to answer a brand's exact request: a particular weight, a particular colour, a particular character, and to hold quality to the standard that has carried the Molloy name for six generations. It also means real people, not anonymous machines, stand behind every metre of cloth.
When we develop a tweed with Molloy and Sons, we are working directly with the family who will weave it. That closeness is rare in the textile space, and it is precisely why brands travel from across the world to this quiet corner of the Donegal coast.
The Colour Comes First: Our Work with Donegal Yarns
A Donegal tweed is only as good as the yarn it begins with and ours begins a short distance down the coast, in Kilcar, at Donegal Yarns.
Spinning has been carried out in Kilcar since the early 1900s, when a commercial mill was first established to bring the skill of making a true 'Donegal' yarn to an industrial scale. The mill took its present name, Donegal Yarns, in 2008, a nod to its specialism: the flecked, nepp-effect yarns that give the cloth its character.
This is where colour is made. Clean wool is sorted, dyed, and then blended, with dyed and undyed fibres combined by hand and eye until each unique shade is built up and matched exactly. It is this blending stage that creates the fleck, and it is the stage where we collaborate most closely. Working with the team at Donegal Yarns, we develop the specific colours for our tweeds, choosing the base tones and the flecks that run through them. Therefore the finished cloth carries exactly the palette we want for each Jack Murphy collection.
Seeking Protection: The Case for 'Donegal Tweed'
Some names carry their origin with them. Champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France; the same principle protects names such as Parmigiano Reggiano. The name guarantees the place, and the place guarantees the product.
Donegal Tweed is now on the same path. In December 2025, the European Union opened a new scheme allowing makers of craft and industrial products to apply for Geographical Indication protection. Led by the Donegal Tweed Association, the county's weavers are now seeking this protection, so that in time only tweed genuinely made in Donegal may carry the name.
A Cloth of Our Own: The Jack Murphy x Adare Manor Collaboration
The clearest expression of what this partnership makes possible is the capsule collection we created with Adare Manor, the five-star estate in Co. Limerick.
The Colours
Working with Molloy & Sons and Donegal Yarns, we developed three bespoke Donegal tweeds exclusively for the collaboration, each named and coloured for an Irish landscape.
Emerald Glen draws on the verdant parkland and lawns that surround the Manor; Burren Rose sets muted pink against berry-coloured flecks, inspired by the wild Bloody Cranesbill that flowers among the grey stone of the Burren; and Atlantic Mist is a stormy blue, navy and grey, drawn from the weather and water of the Wild Atlantic Way. The signature flecks in each cloth were hand-selected to echo those surroundings.
Emerald Glen
Wild Burren Rose
Atlantic Mist
Each yarn is a precise blend of 60% Irish wool and 40% merino, and that ratio solves a long-standing problem. For all its character and provenance, Irish wool has historically been considered too coarse for luxury tailoring, and was often overlooked. Blending homegrown fleece with fine merino keeps the authenticity of Irish wool while adding the softness, drape and performance a tailored coat demands. The fibre is reared and sheared on Irish farms, then spun, yarn-dyed, woven and finished in Donegal by Donegal Yarns and Molloy & Sons, each garment's story begins on Irish soil and ends at an Irish loom.
The cloth was made into a capsule of tailored coats and blazers, available exclusively through Adare Manor. It is the kind of project only a true maker-to-maker relationship allows: a colour developed, a yarn blended, a cloth woven, all to a brief, and all in Ireland.
Why Jack Murphy Weaves with Molloy & Sons
Since 1973, Jack Murphy Ireland has made outerwear that pairs Irish heritage with genuine, lasting quality. When it comes to tweed, weaving with Molloy & Sons is the most natural decision we make.
We work with two distinguished tweed makers, and the two are not interchangeable. Our Yorkshire tweed is woven by Abraham Moon & Sons, the historic English mill in the Pennines; our Donegal tweed is woven by Molloy & Sons, on the Irish coast. Both are woven wool of real pedigree, but they come from different places and carry different character, a Donegal tweed, with its hand-selected flecks of colour, is unmistakably Irish.
It is partly provenance: there is a particular honesty in an Irish heritage brand using tweed woven in Ireland, by a family who have done it for six generations. But it is also craft. Molloy's in-house, made-to-order approach lets us specify the weight, colour and character of every cloth, and their flecked Donegal yarns give our tweeds a depth that mass-produced fabric simply cannot match.
And it suits how we believe clothes should be made. A well-made tweed garment is the opposite of disposable: wear it, look after it, and it will be with you for decades, only improving with age. Natural fibres, woven with care, made to last - that is slow fashion as we understand it, and it is exactly what this partnership delivers.
Shop the Jack Murphy Donegal Tweed Collection
Every tweed in this collection is woven by Molloy & Sons on the Atlantic coast of Donegal, from yarn spun and coloured a few miles away in Kilcar. Explore the range and find a piece made to last. Woven in Ireland, made for life.
How to Care for Your Donegal Tweed
Looked after well, a Donegal tweed garment will last a lifetime. Wool is naturally resilient, and a few simple habits will keep it at its best.
Brushing
Rather than over-cleaning, air your garment after wear. Wool naturally sheds odours and lets light creases drop out.
Airing
Rather than over-cleaning, air your garment after wear. Wool naturally sheds odours and lets light creases drop out.
Spot Cleaning
Treat small marks promptly with a clean, damp cloth, blotting rather than rubbing.
Professional Cleaning
When a full clean is needed, we recommend professional dry cleaning. Avoid machine washing, which can felt and distort woven wool. Always follow the care label on your garment.
Storage
Store on a broad hanger in a breathable garment bag, ideally with a cedar block to deter moths, and keep wool out of prolonged direct sunlight.
Frequently Asked Questions
Donegal Tweed is a woven wool cloth that originates in Co. Donegal, on the north-west coast of Ireland. It is best known for the small flecks of colour, called nepps, that are spun into the yarn and scattered through the cloth. Traditionally woven on the Atlantic coast, it is made today by a small number of authentic mills, including Molloy & Sons in Ardara, who weave the tweed used by Jack Murphy Ireland.
Molloy & Sons are a family weaving mill in Ardara, Co. Donegal. Six generations of the Molloy family have worked in textiles, and the mill is run today by Kieran Molloy alongside his father, Shaun. They are one of the few makers who can genuinely claim to produce authentic Donegal Tweed.
Not yet. In December 2025 the European Union opened a new scheme that lets makers of craft and industrial products apply for Geographical Indication protection. Led by the Donegal Tweed Association, Donegal's weavers are seeking this status, which would mean that only tweed genuinely made in Donegal could carry the name. It is the same kind of origin protection that guards names like Champagne.
The flecks, known as nepps, are blended into the yarn at the spinning stage, much of it done at Donegal Yarns in Kilcar. Dyed and undyed fibres are combined by hand and eye to build each shade, so the colour is spun into the cloth rather than printed on top. Jack Murphy develops these colours in collaboration with Donegal Yarns.
Both are woven wool cloths of genuine pedigree, but they come from different places and have different character. Jack Murphy's Donegal tweed is woven in Ireland by Molloy & Sons and is known for its hand-selected flecks of colour. Our Yorkshire tweed is woven in England by Abraham Moon & Sons. We use both across our collections, so it is worth checking the product description to see which cloth a particular garment is made from.
Brush gently after wear, air rather than over-clean, and spot-clean small marks with a damp cloth. For a full clean, use professional dry cleaning rather than a washing machine, which can felt the wool. Store on a broad hanger in a breathable bag. Always follow the care label on your garment.
It is woven by Molloy & Sons in Ardara, Co. Donegal, from yarn spun and dyed in Donegal. From colour to cloth, it is made in Ireland.
Shop All Donegal Tweed Garments