ART AND COTTAGE INDUSTRIES. 441 



"A number of girls who, in school and afterwards, had shown themselves 

 capable of doing- very highly-finished needleworlc, whose skill should have been 

 to them a source of income, yet found themselves without the means of exer- 

 cising their talents to profitable purpose. Manufacturers and other employers 

 could not help them ; it remained for them to help themselves. The friends 

 of the co-operative movement, which was spreading so rapidly among the 

 farmers of the country, came to their rescue. A meeting was held at the 

 Convent of Dalkey, and a society was formed ' to develope and improve 

 the general needlework and art embroidery in Ireland, to improve the 

 moral and social status of the workers engaged in such occupations by 

 imparting to them technical education in all branches of their business and 

 obtaining a market for their work, and saving for them the profits derived from 

 the sale.' 



" The Loretto Nuns at Dalkey blessed the enterprise, and gave the workers 

 the use of a building in the convent grounds, which was fitted up as a work- 

 room. One of the nuns undertook the management, competent teachers were 

 secured, and the society was started in October, 1895. 



'* The convent is beautifully situated at the edge of the sea, and the workers 

 when they lift their eyes to the window can rejoice in the wide expanse of sea 

 and sky looking out over the blue bay of Dublin. 



" Twenty-five workers are now employed there, but the number varies 

 according to the amount of work on hand. 



" A small capital was subscribed to start the society, and it is now self- 

 supporting. 



" Workers are not required, on entering the society, to pay anything, but 

 they are all obliged to become shareholders. This they can do by allowing 

 their share of profits to be devoted to the purchase of their shares till they are 

 fully paid up. This does not, however, diminish in any way their ordinary 

 wages. 



" The workers are paid according to the amount and quality of their work. 

 The profits of the society, as ascertained when the accounts are made up at 

 the end of each half-year, are divided among the workers in proportion to the 

 wages that each has earned during the time. 



" A committee is elected by the members of the society, and the rules for 

 hours of labour and the general conduct of business are made by the committee. 

 A member cannot be dismissed for any cause whatsoever except by a vote of 

 the whole society. 



" Before a worker is admitted a member of the society she must first enter 

 the workroom as an apprentice, or as a paid hand. If she does not prove 

 herself capable and industrious she will not be admitted into the society. 



" The work I myself saw at Dalkey comprised plain needlework, simple 

 dressmaking, and embroidery. This last was certainly the most important 

 work of the place, and the orders executed were, I noticed, almost entirely for 

 ecclesiastical purposes. The embroidery of some of the vestments showed the 

 most exquisite workmanship. A magnificent cope, ordered by the Countess 

 of Aberdeen, and executed at Dalkey, attracted general attention at the Horse 

 Show in 1896. Side by side with this beautiful church work it would be 

 satisfactory to see more orders from lay members of the community. As soon 

 as the society becomes more generally known ladies will doubtless send orders 

 there for their dresses, and lovers of beautiful embroidery would render a 

 service by sending good designs to be worked out for curtains, piano covers, 

 screens, table cloths. I should also like to recommend the Dalkey workers to 

 those who know not where they can get their handkerchiefs cheaply and 

 prettily marked. The specimens of this kind of work which I saw there were 

 admirably done. 



