When the Sisters of Mercy arrived in Newry from Kinsale on 26th June, 1855, at the invitation of Dr. Michael Blake, Bishop of Dromore, they were greatly dismayed and distressed by the poverty and plight of the people who lived in overcrowded, insanitary houses and they endeavoured to do something about it. They opened a public laundry which gave employment to some women and also opened a House of Mercy. The Annals for 1855 also state that they opened an Industrial School where girls over 12 years were taught to gain a livelihood by needlework. In 1857 the Sisters of St. Clare, who had a lace school in the town and wanted to concentrate on education, gave their lace school to the Sisters of Mercy.
In 1857 Hannah Moylan was brought from Kinsale where she had worked in the thriving Industrial School set up by the Sisters to relieve the poverty and hardship of the inhabitants there. Her remit was to teach lace and gold work. In 1858 she joined the Congregation, became Sr. Angela and was Professed on 8th April, 1861. The school rapidly enjoyed a high reputation for the beauty of its work. An entry in the Newry Convent Annals for 1882 states: “The Industrial School had been steadily progressing since its opening in 1855. Many girls who, without it, would have been in mills or dangerous situations or without employment, were here occupied with needlework, plain sewing, embroidery, fancy work and Limerick lace. To distinguish it from the Government Industrial School, it has been called The Sewing School. The work done in it has been disposed of in many parts of the United Kingdom, in America and even in far off Australia. Frequently, customers have expressed their unqualified admiration of the manner and style in which the work was executed”.
An English lady, Fanny Taylor, touring Ireland after the Crimean War, describes the Sewing and Lace School thus: “A large garden divides the convent from the House of Mercy and poor schools. Attached to the former is the Industrial School on a large scale and which has so high a reputation for the excellence of its work that orders come from all parts, even the colonies, and the girls are therefore kept in constant employment. The specimens I was shown were wonderfully fine work”.
The Sewing and Lace School was set out as follows: The Lace School was in one room. Here the most skilled workers worked. Some of these knew how to work directly from drawings as opposed to patterns while all of them required a certain amount of ingenuity to adapt designs to meet the wishes of certain customers. Sr. Camillus Mc Donald, a person of strong, creative talent, became the Head Designer of the school some years after Sr. Angela’s death. The lace workers did all their work on the premises although one skilled lady had her frame at home.
The Sewing School was in another room where the second class made children’s clothes and the third class underwear – nightdresses, long drawers, petticoats etc. which were embroidered, lace – trimmed garments. They also made red flannel petticoats for old people who were poor. These workers were under direction but they took their tasks home with them and finished them in their own time. The cutters and tackers, however, called at the school every day and stayed from 10 am – 3 pm. They were monitresses who helped the younger girls.
There were many advantages to the Sewing and Lace School.
1 The workers, excluding the monitresses, did not have to stay on the premises all day.
2 The School procured clients which saved the women from having to sell to the nearest shopkeeper.
3 There was no upper age limit.
4 The workers didn’t have to work on Saturdays.
5 The pay was better than at the mill and the hours were shorter.
The School flourished and soon became renowned for the excellence of its products. This was acknowledged at various industrial exhibitions where the school was awarded many prizes: 1st prize and two certificates at the Industrial Exhibition in Dublin in 1882, 1st prize, a bronze medal and a certificate for ‘highest award for plain needlework’ at the Industrial Exhibition in Cork, in 1883, a medal and certificate for tambour lace at the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 and a medal at the Countess of Cadogan’s Irish Textile Exhibition in Dublin in 1897.
By 1882 their plain sewing, embroidery and Limerick lace were being sent to many parts of the United Kingdom, America and Australia. Prices for lace and embroidery differed depending on the skill of the worker and clever marketing. Prices in the Sewing and Lace School in 1908 were £1.17.6 for nightdresses and £2.2.0 for underskirts. The school also had excellent marketing strategies. Items were exhibited at local and national exhibitions attended by the upper classes with a representative from the school on hand to take orders. Moreover, Miss Elizabeth Murphy – affectionately known as ‘ the Countess’ – made regular visits to England with a hamper of linen bedspreads, pillow cases, Limerick lace, christening robes and baby wear, all executed in the school. She had many clients in Liverpool and elsewhere and also went to London to wait on Queen Victoria who bought several articles, all of which boosted sales among the upper classes!
The outbreak of the First World War (1914 – 1918) signalled the decline of the lace-making industry and the Sewing and Lace School. Before the war, Carrickmacross and Limerick lace were worn on society occasions by many of the upper class. This declined after the war as handmade garments were no longer seen as a badge of ‘taste’ and also Limerick lace was very expensive and laborious.
Not to be defeated and very aware that the unemployment level was still very high, Sr. Camillus devised a daring plan. With a small number of her best lace makers, she designed the Clanrye lace – which she named after the river which flows through the city – to adorn albs, surplices and altar cloths. Combining Clanrye lace with linen cut works, she designed beautiful scriptural motto scrolls and symbols on altar cloths, albs and surplices for use in accordance with the liturgical cycle. The alb had twenty inches of lace with ten inches on the sleeves. This work was executed in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Some of the women worked in the school but others, under Sr. Camillus’ direction, worked from home and Sr. Camillus used her influence and her contacts to sell their handiwork.
While most of the pieces of work held by the convent were given away when the school closed in the 1940s to provide extra room for the expanding grammar school, many of the beautiful altar cloths and albs in Clanrye and Limerick lace remain – and are used in our chapel on big ecclesiastical celebrations – as a constant and very beautiful reminder of the courage and workmanship of the Sisters and women of Newry and their refusal to give in to hardship.
Evelyn Kenny rsm
Congregation
