Mount Carmel Lace School, New Ross
The Annals go on to state that the Industrial Lace School was started in 1833, the first of the convent lace schools in Ireland. The aim was to provide the girls of the town with employment and to make them self-sufficient.
The Nuns were at first contented with the production of “cut work” (an imitation of Italian 17th-century pieces), “flat point” and “net lace”. Then, as the workers became more skilled, the heavy “grospoint de Venise” was introduced but it proved too heavy for the fashion of the period. The Nuns realised that they must turn to the manufacture of finer work. Luckily just about that time in 1842, when they were searching for suitable finer models, a travelling Jewish pedlar called at the Monastery with a varied collection of old books, vestments, and a few tattered pieces of Old Venetian Rose Point Lace.
Mother Austin Dalton, a native of Ballygub, Inistioge, changed the reputation of New Ross Lace from ordinary to extraordinary, making it one of the most sought-after status symbols in the world. She purchased the lace, realising that it would provide the opportunity for varying the quality of their own productions and for making them finer and lighter.
Mother Dalton re-discovered the lost art of making Venetian Point Lace, through painstakingly undoing stitch by stitch the old tattered pieces and finding out the mode of execution. Her experiment proved successful for, after a few defective trial specimens, the workers acquired the necessary experience and their work increased the fineness and beauty of design.
She then designed variations of Rose Point, Flat Point, and Needle Point, etc, which experts judged to be better than the originals. Samples of this delicate work won awards at Exhibitions around the world- London, Edinburgh, Brussels, Paris, Chicago, and New York, and of course in Ireland. For many seasons it obtained first-class prizes and awards at the Dublin Horse Show. Similarly at the Royal Dublin Society.
Mr. Michael Holland, a graduate of the Cork School of Art, and a supervisor for crochet dealer Dwyer &Company, and Mr. S. J. Murphy of the Waterford School of Art assisted the reputation of Mount Carmel Crochet and Lace through their innovative designs (many of which are retained as part of The Mount Carmel Collection). Many designs also won awards for innovative style and artistry.
Elizabeth Scott (Bewley Street), Margaret Fitzharris (Chapel Lane), and Mary Daly (Bewley Street) executed the lace sent for exhibition from Mount Carmel to Edinburgh, where it was awarded the gold medal
At the Chicago Exhibition in 1893 workers from the school plied their needles in the presence of large admiring crowds. Lady Aberdeen, wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was in charge of them. Through her patronage and that of Baroness Burdett-Coutts many Royal orders came to the school.
On April 24th 1900 Margaret Fitzharris from Chapel Lane went to the Viceregal Lodge in Dublin to show samples of Mount Carmel Lace to Queen Victoria, who was on a state visit to Ireland at the time. A shawl of Mount Carmel rose-point lace had been presented to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her diamond jubilee in 1897.
At the high end of the market, New Ross Lace was supplied for Papal Coronation Robes, to the British Royal Family and Aristocracy, and to the Empress Elizabeth of Austria.
However, the regular markets for Mount Carmel Lace were threefold:
Ecclesiastical: Altar Falls, Vestments, Veils
High Fashion: Collars, cuffs, handkerchiefs, fan covers
Tableware: Table cloths, napkins, doilies
Orders came from clients in many parts of Ireland, as well as Great Britain, Paris, New York, Buenos Aires etc. In the Mount Carmel Collection is an original Sales Journal that records the fascinating details of these sales.
The Nuns earned enough for their modest needs from teaching in the National School, so the proceeds from the needlework orders that were carried out in the Lace School were divided among the workers.
The women and girls employed were paid weekly on measured progress on a piece and much of the work was taken home in the evenings. It is a wonder to think of how such work was conducted in the poorly lit and very basic homes that they came from.
When Alan Cole visited the school in 1889 there were about 70 workers and many of them were young girls. We can see from the census that most of them were aged 16, 17, and 18, all capable of earning a wage for their families. They entered the Lace School as young as fourteen and some remained on as married women excelling in executing and teaching their intricate artistry.
The manager of the Dublin Depot said in a report of 1907 that the younger girls would have to work at the school for four of five years before they could hope to earn a full wage. So there was an orderly process to work their way up the ranks.
In the early 20th century, the demand for lace dwindled due to the production of synthetic fibers and machine-made lace. World War One saw the end of its production in the Monastery. What remained on hand after the closure of the Lace School is part of The Mount Carmel Collection. It was never planned to be a comprehensive historical record but luckily we have enough to celebrate and marvel at the lace artistry that flourished in New Ross for more than a century.
The Mount Carmel Monastery Annals record that in October 1817, three months after their arrival in New Ross, the Carmelite Nuns opened a Poor School in the ground floor room of their residence. From the beginning, as part of their curriculum, the Nuns taught the girls needlework so that they would be competent in needlework by the time they left school. The Annals record that the girls were learning crochet and lace making from as early as 1822, among the first in Ireland.
Article by Eva Exshaw from “Weekly Irish Times” on 7th February 1903
New Ross Lace
“Who is there throughout the length and breadth of Ireland and indeed of the whole world, who has not heard and perhaps seen exquisite specimens of the beautiful laces made in many of our smaller towns, and more notably of that which is known as New Ross lace? It is made exclusively in that little town in County Wexford, where at the Carmelite Convent for about the past sixty years there has been a school where the art of lace making is taught by experienced and skillful teachers to an average of from forty to sixty girls, who work for several hours each day at the Convent, and turn out most wonderful pieces of lace, for which orders are constantly received from traders, chiefly n Paris and London
A few of the girls work at their own houses, but the more beautiful and intricate patterns are done at the class, where there is little fear of the work getting soiled, each worker carefully covering her piece with tissue paper, except the very spot on which she is engaged. Every stitch, however beautiful in the laces, is handmade, even the parts which have the appearance of net or braid, are all worked with the needle. And anyone will be taught the art at the work-school on payment of about one shilling for a lesson of two hours, which may be repeated until the learner becomes proficient. The excellence of the crochet done at that Convent is something marvelous, especially the embossed style invented there.
Most particular are the nuns that no piece of lace, which does not deserve the hall mark of perfection, may obtain sale in the market as New Ross lace, for they fully realise the truth of the excellent advice given by Mr. Brenan, R.H.A., on that point.
Flat, “rose point” and crochet is work for which New Ross is celebrated. In many instances, point lace filling is put into the crochet, thereby enhancing its beauty and value, while so strong and serviceable it is, withal so beautiful and intricate of patterns and design, that one might almost scrub floors with it and still have it unimpaired.
This crochet lace is most popular in Paris, where it is much worn in combination with fur and flowers, and known as Pointe d’ Irlande.
The crochet done in New Ross, known as Princess Mary crochet, and which resembles nothing so much as carved ivory, is, indeed, a wonderful triumph of art, and has often obtained so much as two guineas per yard; while the fineness of the thread used in the lace often goes as high as Number 300, and seldom lower than Number 150.
The New Ross workers have also obtained wonderful proficiency in the beautiful raised needlework, known as Inishmacsaint lace, which years ago was chiefly made in the little town of that name, away up in Donegal, and anyone visiting the class during the week will find a number of girls busy at work under the experienced teacher, in a lofty, well-lighted room, where some are busily engaged with the crochet lace, of which large quantities are sent to France.
It is said that the lace industry was started in New Ross, at the convent during the years when the cruel famine was wreaking sad havoc throughout the land. About that time a Jewish pedlar one day appeared at the convent with some lovely specimens of Venetian point lace in his pack, and the Reverend Mother having purchased some pieces, then commenced the difficult task of pulling the work to pieces stitch by stitch in order to find out how it was done until finally her patience was rewarded, and she discovered the mystery of the fabrication.
After some little time, a class was started, and many women who would otherwise have suffered keenly for want of remunerative employment were there given work for which a ready market was discovered abroad. New designs and original stitches were introduced, until at the present day New Ross ranks high amongst the many well-known lace-making centers throughout Ireland”.