The Irish standard., 1905-10-07
In Institution Near Dublin Where Girls Are
Taught Fancy Weaving, Printing
and Embroidery.
II is the Result of Longing to Find Work
For Irish Hands in the Making of
Beautiful Things.

The early years of the twentieth
century have already witnessed in Ire
land a so-called Irish revival" says
the New York Herald. The phrase is
used slightingly, but one need not
quarrel with it. The revival has am
pie basis in fact. Ireland is respond
ing at last to the imperious call Of
her needs. An exhibition of Irish lace
making is soon to be opened in New
York to bring this industry to public
attention. The conditions seem ripe
for such a movement.
In America, as well as in Great
Britain, something is known of what
has been done by the Department of
Agriculture and Technical Instruction,
familiarly known as "the Department"
in Ireland. Sir Horace Plunkett has
told us of it's work and ideals in "Ire-
land in the New Century," The Con-
gested Districts Board is of somewhat
older growth, and has been steadily
and successfully working for years.
The Agricultural Organization Society,
of which Sir Horace Plunkett was also
first president, started in 1894. 1t is
generally known as the I. A. 0. S.
Then the Gaelic League has worked
strenuously to make less dreary the
life in the country districts. We know,
further, all about the Donegal tweeds,
the Belfast linens and Sir Horace
Plunkett's creameries, for these and
kindred industries loom largely on the
Irish horizon, but little or nothing is
known of the smaller private industrial
enterprises which have been initiated
of recent years. Indeed, it is being
more and more recognized that it is
in the direction of the revival and
starting Of village industries that the
terrible tide of emigration from the
country districts which is devastating
the land can best be stemmed, for it
is an almost unrealizable fact that in
1903 there are no fewer than forty
thousand emigrants, amounting rough
ly to about one of every hundred of
it is that those men and women who
have the welfare of Ireland passion
ately at heart are turning their atten-
tion to what is a comparatively un-
tried, though promising, field of eco
nonlic activity.
With one such enterprise in particu-
ago, this article wishes mainly to deal,
for a realization of these facts and
longing to find work for Irish hands
in the making of beautiful things was
the beginning of Dun Emer. Many,
no doubt, have the same impulse, but
in this instance Miss Evelyn Gleeson
was able to make an attempt to realize
her desire and to demonstrate what
successful results might be achieved
by one we'll organized village industry.
Having enlisted the cooperation of
Miss Lily Yeats and Miss Elizabeth
c. Yeats, sisters of the poet, w. B.
Yeats, who is so identified in the minds
of the British and American public
with the Irish movement, Miss Evelyn
Gleason, in the autumn of 1902, Sc
lected a large, quaint, old-fashioned
house on the side of mountain near
Dundrum, a village only about three
niles out of Dublin, and here, in the
lidst of most romantic natural sur
roundings, not far away from the busy
hum and complexities of city life, work
at Dun Emer was started to teach,
as has before been said unframed viii
lage girls to make beautiful things.
Three separate industries were
started at Dun Emer-the printing Of
books by hand, embroidering on Irish
linen, and the weaving of tapestry
and carpets; while more recently
bookbndng has been added to these
now hourishing scho OILS. These things
stand for beginnings only, for these
e1lterprising women so interested in
the dormant capacities of others, are
endowed with boundless ambition and
are not willing to stop here. In the