Kenmare Lace

The Poor Clare nuns opened a lace school in Kenmare in 1861 to give local women a way of earning during and after the Famine, and what they taught was needlepoint - Irish needlepoint lace, worked entirely with a needle and a single thread building buttonhole stitches over a traced pattern, with no fabric ground and no bobbins. It is slow and demanding, and Kenmare work became known well beyond Ireland; pieces went to royal and papal collections. The industry declined after independence and the skill nearly disappeared, kept by a handful of women. It was revived from the 1980s, largely through the work of Nora Finnegan, and the Kenmare Lace and Design Centre above the tourist office now displays historic pieces, holds the pattern archive and teaches. Visiting means a small room of exhibits and, if the timing is right, someone actually working, which is the interesting part.

What you actually see

• The needlepoint technique - built from buttonhole stitch with no fabric ground.
• The historic pieces - nineteenth-century work from the convent school.
• The pattern archive - the designs kept and still used.
• The demonstration - lacemakers working, when someone is there.

When to go

April to October; opening depends on volunteers and is limited in winter. Demonstrations are not scheduled - ask ahead if that is why you are going.

Honest expectations

A single small room above the tourist office, not a museum - half an hour to an hour. Opening depends on volunteers. Demonstrations are informal and not guaranteed.

Nearby

Kenmare town is around it; the Ring of Kerry and the Beara peninsula start here.