Restoring a 200 Year Old Irish Cottage, Co. Donegal 1985 

Local craftsmen return a two hundred year old Donegal cottage to its former glory.
Jim McFadden, James Price and Hugh Dorian reflect on old times and their individual crafts. Having learnt their trades in their early teenage years, the three men have worked locally over the years around the village of Portsalon.
Stonemason Hugh Dorian describes how at the age of just thirteen he built a house for his dog out of stone.
That wee house is still up.
The three men, now pensioners, recently came together to combine their skills to restore a two hundred year old cottage to its original condition. The restoration work on the cottage cost around £16,000.
The house has been in the McElwee family for six generations. Hundreds of similar cottages lie vacant in the west and north west of Ireland and most of them are left to fall into disrepair.
Owner of the property Michael McElwee describes how the cottage had been used as a shed or a barn of over twenty years.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 9 January 1985. The reporter is Tommie Gorman.