IRISH LACE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 22, 3 June 1909, Page 851

IRISH LACE

ITS ORIGIN AND VARIETIES

(For the N.Z. Tablet, by Miss E. Leahy, Dublin.) Famine, Pestilence, Death ! Strange sponsors for that thing of dainty lightness and beauty — Irish lace. It is hard to imagine this most lovely adjunct to the toilet of the woman of wealth and fashion owing its creation to these grim spectres, and springing in all its beauty forth from the gloom and desolation of a stricken land. Yet so it is. It was the year 1848, the saddest year in the Irish annals. The air was filled with tlie cries of famishing children; the earth was cumbered with the dead and dying. These cries penetrated to and broke the stillness of cloistered calm in a convent in the ancient southern town of Youghal. They re-echoed in the tender heart of a gentle nun. Well may her name be handed down to future generations. Mother Margaret Smyth heard those children's cries; she saw the frenzied mothers, with the wolfish glare of starvation in their own eyes, stretch forth their hands

in frantic appeal for their little ones. Can we wonder that her woman's heart throbbed with passionate desire to help these stricken people, to do something, 1 " were it ever so little, which might help to provide these mothers with some employment by which such suffering might in future be averted? But how? What could she do, one weak woman, long secluded from the wforld in her quiet cloister? Through the long hours of night she lay awake, seeking some solution to the heart-rending problem. When she did sleep, it was to hear again in her dreams the cries of the hungry little ones, to see those wan, starving faces. And so the days passed, weighted with sorrow for this Sister's sensitive heart. It chanced that one day, her mind and heart still occupied with the one thought, while searching in some old drawers, she lighted upon a piece of rare Italian lace. Who can tell whence it came, or how long the filmy scrap had lain hidden in the convent presses? Perhaps one of the nuns' had brought it when first she entered, fresh from the gay world of fashion. Perhaps it formed part of some lovely gift to the altar. Be it as it may, there was the exquisite scrap, in its lightness resembling nothing so much as the gossamer web which floats lightly from the bushes in the morning breeze. As she. held the dainty bit musingly, like a lightning flash there came to her the "idea that it might be possible to imitate this gem of needle-work. Well, Mother Smyth knew how quick to learn and how deft-fingered the Irish women and girls were. Still, the intricacies of the complicated pattern were many and hard to follow. Mother Smyth sat down, and patiently, stitch by stitch, set herself to undo the meshes of the lace. She succeeded so well that in the end all that remained of her precious scrap was a heap of ravelled thread ; but she was triumphant : she had grasped the secret of construction. Youghal Lace. The heaviest part of her self-appointed task, the founding of a school for lace, was now before her. It was a lony; up-hill struggle; many difficulties and disappointments beset her path, but in the end she conquered. To-day the Youghal School of Lace has achieved European fame. The most exquisite specimens of needle-point, both flat and raised, are made in the Youghal Convent. Hundreds of new stitches have been invented, and so much has the old design been improved upon that this queen of Irish laces may be regarded as a triumph of Irish artistic skill. Some of the lace is so fine as to resemble the spider's web. As an object-lesson in what can be done with -the needle, let anyone take one of the lovely Youghal lace handkerchiefs and examine the way in which the lace is joined ta the' cambric. Most of the work is done by the girls under the direct supervision of the nuns, but a good share of it is also done by the women of the neighborhood, married and single, at their own houses. There is a class for designing attached to the convent school, where those pupils who display an aptitude for this important branch of the work receive instruction. It' has been proved beyond dispute that a knowledge of drawing is of incalculable service to the workers. It would be impossible to over-estimate the benefits conferred on the surrounding district by the Youghal lace industry. It has been the means of bringing comfort into many a cottage home, which otherwise would be bare and desolate. A good mimber of the unmarried workers support themselves entirely out of their earnings, and in some instances provide for an aged parent as well. Youghal lace is entirely worked by the needle, and the stitches are so complicated that to -unravel them is almost an impossibility. It washes and makes up well, and may be said never to wear out. A piece of this exquisite lace might be handed down to one's children as an heirloom. Carrickmacross. There is an older v lace industry existing in Ireland, the Carrickmacross lace, which dates from 1823. In this case, too, a piece of Italian lace was the source of inspiration. The wife of the then Rector of Dunamoyne, County Monaghan, had a servant named Mary Steadman, who possessed rare talent for needlework. Anxious to foster this talent, Mrs. Grey taught the girl to copy some old Italian lace which she happened to possess. Mary Steadman soon became an expert, and obtained many orders for her beautiful lace. Amongst Mrs. Grey's neighbors was a lady, Mrs. Reid, of Rahans, who took a deep interest in Mary Steadman's work. There was much misery amongst the poor of her neighborhood. Hunger was a familiar visi^ tor in the humble homes. The idea came to her that it might be possible to teach this new work to the women and girls, and so provide them with employment which would procure them some few comforts, or, rather, the necessaries of life. In an outhouse given by her brother. Mrs. Reid gathered round her a little class, which she and her sister initiated into the mysteries of lace-making. Here, in these small beginnings, we have the germ of tha

Bath and Shirley School, the oldest lace school in Ireland. The work prospered apace. In 1846 the sad famine year, Carrickmacross became the centre of the industry, giving its name to the lace.

Carrickmacross lace is of two kinds, applique and guipure. In the first the pattern is cut from cambric and applied to net with point stitches. This was the lace which Mrs. Grey taught her servant to make. There is much -difference of opinion regarding its origin, some claiming Persia, others India, as its cradle; while the old Florentine writer Vasari . tells us that it was invented by Botticelli. Certain it is that an enormous quantity of it was to be found in Italy during the seventeenth century. Guipure lace is made by tracing a design with thread on cambric. The design is joined by point stitches, and the superfluous parts are cut away. The pattern is then connected by ' brides ' or ' picots,' further supplemented in the richer pieces of work by small ' pearls ' or ' loops ' springing from the ' brides.' The making of guipure lace was added to the older applique lace industry of the famine year. Carrickmacross lace is exceeding rich and beautiful; of a somewhat heavier make x han the Youghal lace, it has been called the ' king of Irish laces.' Exquisite specimens are made at the Convent of St. Louis, Carrickmacross. . Irish Crochet. Once again let us turn back the pages of the years to the tear-stained one of 1846 ; Mother Smyth, in the Youghal Convent, is anxiously considering how to relieve the misery around her. And in another corner of the same sunny Southern country another nun, with heavy heart, is, pondering over the same fateful question. There was then, as there is now, a convent of TJrsulines at Blackrock, County Cork. A fair spot by ' the pleasant waters of the River Lee,' removed from the smoke and noise of busy cities. But here, too, the cries of the starving broke the stillness of cloister calm, filling another gentle heart with pain and longing to relieve. This time there was no lovely lace from far-off Italy to serve as inspiration and model. For all inspirations the Ursuline Sister had but an ordinary crochet needle, and for model nothing but what her own rich artistic imagination could devise. In her hands the commonplace crochet needle became as a fairy instrument capable of producing lace which to-day is universally acknowledged as unique in its beauty. Irish crochet, or, as the Parisians call it, ' Irish point,' is a veritable triumph of Irish artistic skill, owing its origin to no foreign source, but purely and simply the rich fancy of Irish brains woven into shape by Irish fingers. Looking at some of these exquisite creations, one can scarcely realise that they are produced by a crochet needle. Irish crochet is in great demand amongst the leaders of fashion in Paris, as we said before; it is termed 'Point d'lrlande.' The crochet industry at the present day has been brought to the highest degree of perfection, both as regards designs and execution. Foreign lace manufacturers tell us that it is quite impossible to imitate Irish crochet. Limerick and Rose Point. Limerick lace is another lovely Irish lace, which of late years has been brought to great perfection. It somewhat resembles Brussels lace, and is exquisitely light and graceful in appearance. There are two kinds — ' run ' and ' tambour ' — both consisting of embroidery on net. Although Limerick is the home of the industry, it having been introduced there in 1829 by a Mr. Walker, the lace is made in various other parts of Ireland. -Some of the loveliest specimens of Limerick lace are made in the Convent School for Deaf and Dumb at Cabra, County Dublin. There is a strange pathos in beholding these girls, so set apart from their fellow-creatures by their affliction, producing with their needle these things of loveliness, destined to adorn the gay butterflies of fashion. It would be impossible to describe the beauty of some of the lace worked by these poor deaf mutes. On the fair shores of Lough Erne, in the County of Fermanagh, we find girl-workers who in their own homes produce the exquisite lace known as ' Inishmacsaint Rose Point.' This fairy-like fabric is so exquisitely fine that its production is very tedious, a small square of four inches lace requiring a considerable time to execute. The girls sit outside their cottage doors working in full view of the beautiful isle which gives its name to the locality and the lace, Inishmacsaint — in English, Isle of the Sorrel Plain. This is, in truth, a most rare and beautiful lace, resembling Venetian rose point, on, which it was at first modelled. It is worked with the needle, and has no foundation of braid. Inishmacsaint lace is extremely rich, the pattern being raised in high relief, which causes a splendid effect. Here, again, we owe the lovely work to the gloomy days of the famine year. Mrs. Maclean, wife of the Rector of Tynan, in the County Armagh, in her tender-hearted charity and desire to help the poor at her gates, gathered

a class of girls round her and taught them the mysteries of lace-making. The model was a piece of Venetian rose point. It was slow work at first, but at last the intricacies were mastered. The industry prospered amazingly, and in 1865 the centre of the work was removed to Inishmacsaint. Experts who have visited the Murano School of Lace in Venice declare that Inishmacsaint lace is far finer and more beautiful than modern Venice rose point. The Irish product is quite as lovely as the precious old Venetian point, and can be had for about one-third of the cost. Very beautiful needle point, both flat and. raised, is made in the Convent of Poor Clares, and also in the Presentation Convent, Killarney. It would be almost impossible to estimate fully the importance of the Irish lace industry. North, south,' all over the land, the lace centres provide hundreds with the means of earning a comfortable livelihood. Homes otherwise bare and desolate, lacking the very necessaries of life, are rendered bright and prosperous. Many an aged parent owes the comforts of his or her declining years to Irish lace. Happiness sits beside many a cottage fireside, which otherwise would be cheerless, and simple comforts hitherto unknown are now within the reach of the industrious worker. Can wealth be better employed than in fostering such an industry by the purchase of the lovely and precious work? ' A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.' Never were the poet's words better exemplified than in the case of Irish lace. Truly, it is 'a joy for ever.' The fashionable beauty who drapes her form with this lovely fabric may indulge in the sweet reflection that while adding to her charms she is at the same time clothing her soul with that garment of charity which we are told ' covers a multitude of sins.' If ever extravagance in dress might be condone.l, it is surely when it takes the form of Irish lace.