Fabric of Kenmare: nuns' role in lace industry celebrated

[rug]

The Irish Times - Monday, October 24, 2011
ANNE LUCEY

KENMARE, CO Kerry, is celebrating the contribution of an order of nuns which was asked by a local priest to provide relief for a starving populace 150 years ago.

The order managed to set up an entire industry by educating girls and women in the art of lacemaking.

Kenmare had suffered appallingly during the 19th century, with famines lasting until the 1880s and the local absentee landlords insisting on drawing rents from starving peasant tenants.

The nuns, a teaching arm of the Carmelite Order of St Clare in Newry, Co Down, had been trained in design. Invited to Kenmare in 1861, Mother Mary O’Hagan and six sisters brought with them not just a soup kitchen but the seeds of an industry that became world famous.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1024/1224306387639.html

[pacalo]

1. I'm just in awe at the intricate stitchings, particularly those teeny loops on the edges.