Carrickmacross Lace

Like most Irish Lace, the concept for Carrickmacross Lace was influenced by European Lace. When Margaret Lyndsey married Rev. John Grey Porter, of Donaghmoyne in 1816, the newly married couple travelled to the continent and were accompanied by their maid Anne Steadman. In Italy, Mrs Grey Porter came across some appliqué lace and both ladies tried to discover the method used to create the lace. It was during the early 1820s that Mrs Grey Porter started appliqué classes. She is credited for the designs and sourcing of the materials. It was while her work was at its height that all trace of Mrs Grey Porter is lost. There is no record of when she ceased lacemaking but she and her family continued to live in the area for up to three decades after she first introduced this technique.

In the nearby Rahans estate, the distress of seeing young girls in the Monaghan and South Armagh area doing heavy farm work caused Miss Read and her sister Dora to continue the lace classes on at their family estate, using patterns copied from Mrs Grey Porter. The venture proved successful and they eventually moved to a new building in Culloville, where classes were small but continued to the end of the century. The town of Carrickmacross was situated upon the Bath and Shirley Estates. The Great Famine of 1846 and the hardship that followed prompted Mr Tristam Kennedy, a manager of the Bath Estate to build seven schools on the estate. Captain Morant, who managed the Shirley Estate arranged for a vacant building to be used as a school in Carrickmacross, which became a central school known as the Bath and Shirley Lace School. This was done to alleviate hardship and provide much-needed employment. The central school supplied other schools with instructions, designs and orders. Mr Kennedy brought some examples of Brussels Lace from Belgium to the Bath and Shirley Lace School and in doing so, introduced the ‘guipure’ technique to the school. In 1890 Mr James Brenan, Principal of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art visited the school and noted that although lacemakers had great skill, design was poor.

When the Cork Exhibition of 1883 ended, surplus funds were made available for the improvement of lace design in Ireland. In 1884, two thousand pounds were granted to Alan Cole of the Victoria and Albert Museum to acquire a collection of Irish Lace. Cole and Brenan travelled to lace centres, exhibiting samples, and giving instruction and advice about design. As a result of this, many Convent lacemaking schools became affiliated Branch Schools of the Cork School of Art.

From the early days of the craft with Mrs Grey Porter, there was a continuity with Carrickmacross Lacemaking, however, the appliqué and guipure lace made in the Carrickmacross area was not known as ‘Carrickmacross’ for many years.

‘The earliest catalogue which describes any lace exhibit as ‘Carrickmacross’ was that of the Dublin Workingman’s Exhibition of 1872.’
Nellie Ó Cléirigh (1985)

The great era of Irish and European Lacemaking ended with the outbreak of World War, however, Carrickmacross Lace is unique in that it has survived as an industry in the same town for over two hundred years. The beautiful and delicate lace which was nameless for almost half a century is now well-known and deserving of the name Carrickmacross, recognised and admired worldwide.

Detailed images from an old Carrickmacross Lace collar circa 1900 – unfinished piece of lace.