Kilrush Lace Factory on the 1842 O.S. map

In the mid-nineteenth century Kilrush Lace was a prized possession among the ascendancy class of the United Kingdom. Samples of its intricate embroidery adorned royal occasions, coronations, weddings, funerals and investitures. Kilrush Lace ranked highly with Nottingham, Carrickmacross, Mountmellick and Limerick as a centre of lace-making excellence. And yet, this prestigious state may never have happened were it not for a chance meeting of entrepreneurs on the banks of the Shannon one summer’s day in the mid-1830s.

Lace Skills
James Paterson, a Scottish seaman who came ashore at Kilrush in the early nineteenth century had linked up with the Vandeleur landlord in planning the modern town of Kilrush. A trip upstream to Limerick on that summer’s afternoon saw them introduced to a Charles Walker, a native of Oxford, who had come to Limerick to establish a lace-making industry there. Walker had brought twenty-four skilled ladies from Nottingham to Limerick in 1829 to teach the locals the deft skills of intricate embroidery. By 1853, Walker was employing 1,100 females, including 800 apprentices in lace factories in Limerick and Kilrush. He boasted that the lace produced Shannonside was equal to any produced elsewhere in the United Kingdom. An old map of Kilrush dated 1841, shows a lace factory indicated at Lower Moore Street near the area known as the Manse. Young girls aged 11 to 14 years worked in these lace factories from 6am to 6pm and were paid according to their standard of needlework. Other trained ladies carried on embroidery in their own homes which found its way into the social life of the ascendancy classes of Dublin, London and the far-flung reaches of the British Empire.

‘Flowering’
The mid-nineteenth century saw a flourishing of crafts and the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), founded in 1731, encouraged excellence in crafts by offering valuable prizes in all spheres of needlework. Kilrush Lace was a form of embroidery on mesh or net, being either chain stitch (tambour) or darned net (run-lace) or sometimes a combination of both techniques. A speciality was ‘flowering’ where sprigs of fresh flowers on lace were worn at christenings, weddings and other times of celebration. Samples of Kilrush Lace can be seen in the archives of the RDS or in the Lace Museum.

Decline in Demand
Kilrush Lace was in demand for weddings, christenings and mourning occasions. It embellished table and bed linen, curtains and personal effects. Clergy and hierarchy created a demand for exquisite lace to decorate the edges of altar cloths and white vestments. Handmade lace suffered a decline in demand in the latter half of the nineteenth century when the automation of the Industrial Revolution mass-produced bridal veils, handkerchiefs and tunic flounces. For a while, handmade and machine-made laces vied for commercial supremacy, but both always danced to the tune of fashion. Their respective fortunes were largely dictated by the powerful but largely conservative West End market.

Role of the Sisters of Mercy
It is interesting to note the significant part played by the Sisters of Mercy in imparting embroidery skills to the young girls of West Clare in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Following on their arrival in Kilrush (1855) and in Kilkee (1871), the Sisters soon established flourishing needlework and embroidery workrooms in both locations, incidentally on convent sites donated free to the congregation by the local landlords, Colonel Vandeleur and the Marquis of Conyngham.

Pioneering Sister
Sister Pius O’Brien in her history of the ‘Sisters of Mercy of Kilrush and Kilkee’ chronicles Sister Aloysius Griffin as a pioneer in this technical area from 1869 onwards. Following the passing of the Agricultural and Technical Act of 1889, grants were made available by the Department of Education and qualified teachers were paid to teach courses that included shirt-making, dressmaking, knitting, crochet, Mountmellick Lace, smocking, braiding, English Point Lace, mosquito netting, fine darned net, art needlework and ecclesiastical embroidery. A ‘Lace Parade’ or ‘Lace Party’ was frequently held at which the best samples were exhibited and sold.

‘Blousy Bella’
The materials used by the Sisters of Mercy were procured from Clerys and Switzers of Dublin and Wakefords of London. Both landlords commended the high standard of needlework to their many upper-class friends, among them Lady Aberdeen, wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and affectionately know as ‘Blousy Bella’ because she had an affectation for wearing lace in her daily apparel. It was claimed that Queen Victoria wore Kilrush lace at her coronation on the 28th June 1838 and Kilrush lace was also among her personal effects at her funeral on Saturday 2nd February 1901.