442 ART AND COTTAGE INDUSTRIES. 



"The Dalkey society has prospered continuously since it was started, and 

 the work is g-ood enough to need no extraneous advertisement or help. It is 

 not therefore so much for the good of this Society that its work and history 

 need be put before the public, but rather for the purpose of holding it up as an 

 example which I trust will be speedily followed by others, and in the hope that 

 similar societies may soon be started in all parts of Ireland where the need for 

 self-help is great, and where poverty is the result of a dearth of employment 

 and not of an absence of skill. This result, above all others, would be gratifying 

 to those who have so eflfectually watched over the infancy of the Society of 

 Needleworkers at Dalkey." 



Since the foregoing account was written the work at Dalkey has attained 

 notable developments. The department of ecclesiastical embroidery has 

 increased its workers, their training has been perfected, and their work can 

 more than hold its own against the imports from Lyons and Rome.* An 

 altar frontal ordered by Her Excellency Countess Cadogan was exhibited 

 by the Society at the Textile Exhibition in Dublin, 1897. 



Besides the above, the work of the Kenmare, Garryhill, and Turbotstown 

 industries, under the care, respectively, of the Convent of Poor Clares, the 

 Viscountess Duncannon, and Mrs. Dease, has formed a notable feature at 

 the exhibitions of the Royal Dublin Society and the Irish Arts and Crafts 

 Society, and has set up a standard of taste in design and excellence of 

 workmanship which is of much value to the industries dealing with simpler 

 forms of art-needlework. The industries at Marlfield (Clonmel), conducted 

 by Mrs. Bagwell, and at Ennis (the Little Sisters of the Poor), and at Gort 

 (Sisters of Mercy), turn out children's frocks, aprons, etc., in excellent style, 

 with simple, yet dainty and artistic ornamentation, and rich vestments are 

 also made at Gort. 



The Hand-tufted Carpet Industry in Ireland is one of large and 

 growing importance. Introduced a few years ago into Killybegs, County 

 Donegal, by Messrs. Morton of Ayrshire, it has taken firm root there and has 

 doubled the number of its workers since the Glasgow edition of this Hand- 

 book was produced last year. There are now about 300 workers employed 

 at two centres in South Donegal (Killybegs and Kilcar), and further exten- 

 sions are, we believe, contemplated. These beautiful carpets are made 

 ■entirely by hand, by the traditional method which we find illustrated in a 

 Greek vase painting of 2,400 years ago.t The factory is a large, airy 

 building with the vertical warps stretching from floor to ceiling. At each 

 of these a group of girls is employed, knotting in the tufts of woollen yarns 

 to the threads of the warp in accordance with diagrams before them, and 

 beating the weft close with small heavy combs, which take the place of the 

 " sley " in the ordinary weaver's loom. Practically any design which can be 

 drawn on paper is capable of reproduction by this process. The mechanical 

 repetitions of patterns in machine-woven fabrics are not obligatory here, 

 and the carpets of the Donegal factories are artistic in effect, and are as 

 durable as the Turkey carpets whose processes of manufacture they repro- 

 duce. 



* The fruit of the excellent art training given is now being reaped in the very beautiful 

 designs which the workers are able to draw for themselves, and afterwards to carry out in 

 •embroidery. This union of art and craftsmanship, so much to be desired and aimed at in the 

 technical education of our people, has already been attained here with the happiest results. 



t See tail-piece page 401. 



