, 1889-07-17
LACE MAKING IN IRELAND.
BEAUTIFUL HAN.e@oaK OF ERiH;s
MAIDS AND NATIONS.

Labor That Is Poorly SIRewarded-seven
BIonths Making n handkerchief That
Would Bring Five DoIIars-statisties of
Women Workers In the Industry.
In Limerick alone of all the Irish cities
has there ever been anything like an at
tempt at manufacture of lace. and here
lace making has been, during certain
periods, extraordinarily successful. 1t
was introduced in 1929 by a man named
Walker, about twenty lace makers hav-
ing been imported from Nottingham.
By 1850 nearly 1000 women and girls
were employed in various branches Of
the work as Landowners, runners, darn
ers, members, washers, finishers, muslin
embroiderers and lace open workers.
The groundwork Of all this lace is made
by machinery. The quality has always
been superb, far excelling any partly
machine made a C manufactured either
in England or upon the continent; but of
late the industry has suffered from Swiss
machine competition, and workers were
never permitted to earn wages exceeding
from three to seven shillings per week.
The Carrickmacross lace derives its
name from the Introduction of both ap-
plique and guipure lace making into the
parish of Carrickmacross, in County
Monaghan, as early a. 1920.
1t is a most interesting region under
the shadow of the Slieve-B BEACH noun
tains, and the environments of the peas
antry to this day are of the most primi-
tive sort The cabins, which seldom
have more than one room from 8 to 10
feet square, and never more than 8 feet
high, with earthen floors and straw
matched roofs. A hole In the roof end
gives the smoke opportunity for escape,
and where clay and stick chimneys are
INDUCED in, an old firkin, or a few
slivers of freestone rock, form the pict-
turesque chimney pot Potatoes, with
occasionally a little buttermilk or sweet
milk, constitute almost the only articles
of food; and yet IRON out of the hands
of the daughters and mothers of this re-
gion, and of County Armagh, into which
Carrickmacross lace making has extend
ed, come daintier fabrics in applique
than were ever conceived in Brussels,
and copies in guipure that are marvel
o improvements upon the originals in
Cretan.
NNISHMACSAINT LACE
The Innishmacsaint lace comes from a
region still more interesting, not only
from the loneliness of the scenery about
the upper and lower lakes of Tough Erne;
that splendid northern rival of glorious
Killarney in Kerry, but also from the
singular beauty of the maidens and
mothers who dwell and labor amid these
mountains, wales. glens and upon these
transcendent shores. Innishmacsaint it
self is a dainty island half a mile from
shore in upper Tough Erne. A famous
abbey was founded here in the Sixth
century, by st. Nenn or Nernid of the
royal blood of Ireland. The saints bell,
ornamented with gold and silver, is still
preserved here as a sacred and precious
relic. The parish, partly in county Done
gal and partly in F~ermanagh, derives its
name from the island of ruins, and the
entire peasantry of this wild and beauti-
full region, in n and dress, strik-
ingly remind one of the picturesque folk
Of the Tyrol.
Nearly every family has IL member
who is a lace maker, and without organ
~ization, technical instruction, or any at
tention whatever to preserving or devel-
oping artistic effort, these blue eyed, black
haired, red Tipped women produce mar
wells in point lace as wonderful as were
ever known in point d'Alencon. l found
one worker who had been employed
more than five months upon one hand
kerchief. She said two months more
would be required to complete it. what
will you get for itT' / inquired. Faith,
an I'm thinkin' a pound it'll bring. "And
what will you do them" 1 asked again.
q to America, phase Godi" was the
reply. And yet the rich Belfast lace
dealers showed me handkerchiefs by no
means as rich and delicate for which
they easily got $3.50 each.
tt pAID In THE SOUTH.
Their peasant sisters of the south are
more fortunate in the matter of training
and just and generous supervision. The
nuns of the Presentation convent at
Youghal have assiduously striven for
fifty years to not only secure the best
copies from the most famous lace max
ers of southern Europe, but have insisted
upon constant instruction. Dealing direct
with the importing houses of America,
they have been able to pay the best
wages known in Ireland for women's
labor. These fifty years of effort have
also brought most magnificent artistic
results. Irish point" as the Youghal
lace is called, is practically perfected into
an original combination of old and mod
ern stitches, closely resembling, and in
many instances far superior to, some of
the rarest specimens of Malines; and it
is doubtful if today there can be found
rarer, more exquisitely and marvellous
ly designed work than comes from hum
dreds of homes of the sunny wales of
Cork and Waterford.
There is also a black lace in silk, and
a white lace in thread, both pillow
~laces," made by the peasant women
about the sleepy old town Of Tallow,
from instruction during the last half
century by the nuns of st. Joseph's con-
vent.