ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A great debt of gratitude is owed to Kathie Earle from County Kildare who was instrumental in bringing this amazing collection of New Ross Lace to light.

In 2009 she’d been reading about New Ross Lace in a book on Irish laces called The Flowerers and was eager to see if there were any samples in existence.

At that time she was teaching Irish Crochet to a craft group in Ramsgrange, Co Wexford and she discovered that one of the women there had a contact in the Carmelite Monastery where Kathie knew the lace was originally made. It was through this contact that Kathie managed to get in to see the lace that was still in the monastery.

When she saw the collection Kathie immediately realized its importance and made it her mission to have its significance recognised.

She alerted all the right people to its existence including the National Museum of Ireland at Collins’ Barracks, and Wexford County Council.

Her persistence and hard work over the years has now paid off as a catalogue of the collection has been created and there are plans for a permanent exhibition in its hometown of New Ross. And it is thanks to Kathie that New Ross Lace has now been able to take its place amongst all the other wonderful Irish Laces.

Bio: Kathie Earle is an expert in Irish Crochet Lace, both in the making and in the history of it.