The Kenmare Lace Festival – 19-22 March 2015

By | |
Leave a comment

From the Kenmare Lace Festival website:

Kenmare Biennial Lace Festival had its origins in ‘The Gathering Ireland 2013’, a series of events, festivals and gatherings of all kinds welcoming people to Ireland during 2013.

From 19 to 22 March 2015 we will again celebrate the wonderful heritage of lacemaking and design established by the Poor Clare nuns in post famine Kenmare in the 1860s.

There is a full festival programme with lacemaking workshops in nine different disciplines running over two days. For the fashion conscious there will be a fashion show, a fashion-able competition and ‘meet the designers’ at the Art & Design Cloister. Exhibitions will showcase the very best in lacemaking and Irish design. There will be a full day of lacemaking workshops including Kenmare Lacemaking for both beginners and experienced lacemakers.

KenmareHeader

All the events are aimed at encouraging people to uphold tradition, good design and culture. To find out what is taking place during the festival go to the programme page.

The festival includes lace making workshops (3h each) in the following types of lace:

  • Kenmare Needlepoint Lace
  • Carrickmacross Lace
  • Bobbin Lace
  • Traditional Irish Crochet Lace
  • Limerick Lace

Registration is now open for lace making workshops. Workshops are running on Friday and Saturday.

Recording of ‘Amazing Lace’ launch

By | |
Leave a comment

Many thanks to Michael Potter for filming the launch of the Amazing Lace book and Exhibition.

Jacqui Hayes, Limerick Archivist hosted the evenings events, Pascal Pestre, Deputy Mayor of Calais launched the exhibition. Among the special guests was Veronica Rowe, who is the grand daughter of Florence Vere-O’Brien, one of the most important names in the history of Limerick lace. While Dr Matthew Potter spoke about the history of Limerick Lace.

Thank you very much to all who were present, and don’t forget the exhibition will be open until March 2015! The Amazing Lace book is available for sale at the museum and in the O’Mahony book shop.

The launch of the Amazing Lace book and exhibition

By | |
Leave a comment

And finally, the big day arrived! More than 100 people came to the launch. The Deputy Mayor of Calais, Pascal Pestre, was the guest of honour invited to open the exhibition. Calais has a very strong lace tradition and it is the home of a lace centre titled International City of Lace (Cite Internationale de la Dentelle). Mike Fitzpatrick, the artistic director of Limerick City of Culture 2014, and Sheila Deegan, the Arts and Culture officer, were also present. Among the special guests was Veronica Rowe, who is the grand daughter of Florence Vere-O’Brien, one of the most important names in the history of Limerick lace. 

The echoes in the media were brilliant! Thank you very much to all who were present, and don’t forget the exhibition will be open until March 2015! The Amazing Lace book is available for sale at the museum and in the O’Mahony book shop.

Media echoes – Limerick Leader

By | |
Leave a comment

Today’s Limerick Leader has an article by Dr. Matthew Potter on the history of Limerick Lace.
Below an excerpt:

Limerick lace created a rich material culture.

Over many decades, it produced a large output of lace products, from dresses, christening shawls and ecclesiastical robes to handkerchiefs and doilies. It was worn by thousands of women, including a few who figure prominently in the pages of history, such as Queen Victoria, American First Lady Edith Roosevelt and Countess Markievicz.

A visit to Moyross Threads

By | |
Leave a comment

Gabriela visited the “Moyross Threads” group on Thursday, 4 December 2014, to collect their pieces, and found them at work. Here they are after having received their invitations to the ‘Amazing Lace’ book and exhibition launch.

20141204_143650

The members of the group were involved in the Communities of Culture programme organised by the Hunt Museum. They expressed their wish to learn more about Limerick lace, and Carrie Lynam from the Kilkenny Craft Gallery was invited by Sorcha O’Brien, Access Officer at the Hunt Museum, to work with the Moyross group.

Here’s the ladies’ work which was exhibited in the Watch House Cross Library and in The Hunt Museum:
IMAG3956
This video, also made as part of the Communities of Culture programme, gives an insight into these crafters’ practices:

Setting up the exhibition

By | |
Leave a comment

Eileen O’Caffery’s first communion veil was made by a neighbour. Eileen remembers how the lady had painted all the walls in her courtyard in white, to create better light for the lace making.

The day Eileen brought her veil into the museum was special, and the set up was a real ceremony.

Bringing in the “Enlaced” dress installation wasn’t an easy job! The mannequin had no legs, and we had to find a solution to give the lady the vertical position she deserved. While Gabriela was running around the city collecting the last lace contributions, Suzanna attached the already received ones to the sleeves, including the NFC tags underneath each of them. We finally managed to take a photo of the dress, but the electronics embedded in the table still needed attention.

It is the turn of the ecclesiastic lace to come out of storage. This is an important part of the exhibition.

Contributions to the dress by contemporary lace makers

By | | ,
Leave a comment

We issued a call for lace pieces in October, as we wanted to show that the Limerick lace tradition is still alive.
We reached out to the public, and we received five contributions:

20141204_153243

20141203_144640

20141204_153257 20141204_153320