This post is of a more personal nature, as it summarises my own experience (Gabriela Avram’s) during a recent vacation in Bantry, West Cork.
I have been attending the West Cork Chamber Music Festival almost every year, so I am very familiar with the Bantry and Glengarriff areas. But this year I decided to make a few inquiries about Glengarriff Lace, as I was quite intrigued of its scarcity and close resemblance to Limerick lace. The first mention I heard of Glengarriff Lace was from Veronica Stuart a few years back when I first attended the International Lace Festival in Kinsale. The only photograph I could find online was the one of a collar from the Headford Lace Project collection.
We stayed in a new place this year, and when I tried to question our landlord about Glengarriff lace, he promptly introduced me to his wife, who has been an art teacher in the area for many years. She hadn’t heard anything about Glengarriff lace, but told me that the Sisters of Mercy had created a Lace School in Bantry that was active many years in the 20th century.
A bit of online research led me to the above photo from the National Library of Ireland Collection, showing a group of pupils with their work. Further research led me to the photo of the school – I am not sure if the building still exists. The former site of the Sisters of Mercy is now an assisted living establishment.
The following day I went to the Bantry Library, where I got more help. The Bantry Historical and Archaeological Society publishes a journal, and in the second volume I found an article on The Sisters of Mercy in Bantry, signed by Jenny McCarthy. The article states that the Lace School was open in 1902, and it was an effort of the Sisters to teach the young girls useful skills.
On one of the following days, I visited the tiny Bantry Museum and discovered there was quite a bit of lace there – of various types – although the origin of the pieces is mostly unknown.
Also, an article on a website belonging to the Sisters of Mercy presented a more detailed history of the Bantry convent. And this is not the only place where the Sisters of Mercy were active in West Cork.
But what about Glengarriff Lace?
The UCC Library preserves, as part of the Bantry Estate Collection, typed correspondence concerning a site to be leased from the Leigh-White Estate by the Congested Districts Board, Dublin for the Glengarriff Lace School, 4 – 15 Nov. 1913. Land was leased for the construction of a Technical School of Lace Making & Hand Weaving in Glengarriff, and a photo representing a group of students is available in a private collection.
A Dáil Éireann debate on the Arts Bill from 1951 mentions:
The type of excellent lacework that you can get in little cottages around tourist spots like Glengarriff is of immense artistic quality, and has been a heritage of the people and of families. This is something that could be encouraged and developed so as to make available things of beauty and quality instead of the awfully loud, garish and unfortunate souvenirs that are plastered around this country and which are meant to be representative of something typically Irish or something produced in Ireland.
Further discussions on the characteristics of Glengarriff Lace on the Laces of Ireland Facebook Group led to a number of other contributions.
Fidelma Cosgrave, lacemaker from Limerick, told us:
“Below is Glengariff lace my brother and I bought it in 1957 or 1958 as a present for our mum. Nora Finnegan knows who made it – the lady is dead for many years. My memory of buying it is: I was 4 or 5 we went into the lady’s thatched cottage to see this old lady dressed in black making the lace. She had a large frame and she worked away on the lace. It was in the Glengariff area.”
Nora Finnegan, Kenmare Lace and Design Centre:
“I believe the Limerick Tambour Lace you had on Facebook was made by Sheila O’Sullivan from Ardgroom village. Ardgroom is near Glengariff. Sheila regularly supplied Tambour Lace to the Convent in Kenmare and after that to The Kenmare Lace and Design Centre. She passed away a few years ago.
If you look at the piece she is working on , it is very similar to the piece you had on Facebook. I have kept the other piece, because I wanted to have something made by her.
Nellie Brooks was a very talented lacemaker. She also made some lace for The Lace Centre. She lived up a steep road above Glengariff town in a lovely old cottage. She learned to make Limerick Tambour, or Glengariff Lace, from her mother in law. Nellie in turn taught it to her daughter in law, but her daughter in law passed away at a very young age and so did not get to make much of it.”
Veronica Stuart, Traditional Lacemakers of Ireland:
“A lady called Peggy Brooks used to teach in Glengarriffe, I was lucky enough to have met her a few times. Lovely lady. RIP. I have a newspaper article about her . Must look it up.”
