Michael Lyons has more claim than most to be a molinologist, that is, an expert on all aspects of mills and milling.
The retired Co Wexford farmer spent three years meticulously restoring the ancient water-powered Craanford Mill where he himself learned the miller's trade as a child in the 1930s.
The timber-beamed, flagstone-floored mill, with its massive grinding stones, its cogged wheel gearing and 13ft-diameter waterwheel, is over 400 years old and, in its fine state of preservation, must constitute an early industrial gem.
Now back in full working order, it is on view to visitors, along with interpretative data, explanatory exhibits and even a cafe in the kiln loft.
But the most valuable asset to the 5,000 or so visitors who make their way there each year lies in the person of Mick Lyons himself. His personal, hands-on experience of the mill and his detailed knowledge of the history of milling bring the time-honoured process alive for the visitor.
His grandfather, Michael, purchased the mill 150 years ago from the second of two previous owners. In time his uncle, David, became the miller. From the age of six, Mick brought tea to the miller and his assistants, who operated the machinery around the clock. Later he learned his trade there, becoming familiar with every stage of the milling process.
The growth of road transport and the coming of a new source of power ended the mill's working life. "We closed it in 1948 with the coming of electricity," he recalls. "We turned the key in the door and walked away."
He came back 43 years later, after a long career farming locally, to find the three-storey building overgrown and crumbling, but with the machinery intact. When he began the long job of restoration he had to work alone at first. Insurance could not be obtained to cover outside tradesmen.
He had to strengthen the walls with concrete and reinforce the old larch roof beams to make the building sound. Then he set about refurbishing the ancient gearing system bit by bit: the pit wheel, the crown wheel, the fly wheel, the head wheel and the great spur wheel.
The overshot water wheel, a classical design of Roman tradition, was restored. The stone bearings were replaced by brass. The immense grinding stones were cleaned. One of these, a French burr stone, weighs over two tonnes.
"Just fifty years ago there were more than 900 working mills in Ireland. Now there are seventeen," he points out. "A mill served an area of from 10 to 15 miles in extent. It would be one of the most important buildings in an area, providing food for humans and animals. It became the pivot of the area.
"The journeyman worker visiting the area slept in the mill. It was always warm there, with a fire burning constantly to dry the corn. He spread our culture."
It is local lore that the first newspaper to arrive in the area, the Freeman's Journal, was read aloud to a gathering of people around the fire in Craanford Mill.
It is still a source of wonder, and something of an engineering mystery, how the builders of the mill four centuries ago, without the aid of survey equipment, managed to dig out the millstream, or canal, to carry water precisely from the Lask river to the millpond, at just the right level above the waterwheel.
Craanford Mill, five miles west of Gorey, is open to visitors from Easter to September at a charge of £3 per adult, with special rates for groups. Details of opening times, and appointments for groups, are available at tel: (055) 28124/28392