Youghal Lace

Closeup of Youghall Handkerchief

Before the 1800’s there is little known of lace in Ireland. But the 19th century brought an explosion of diverse lace forms to this island country. These include tatting, crochet, tape lace, decorated machine net lace, bobbin lace and several kinds of needle lace.

Much of the lace was created in homes as a cottage industry to supplement the incomes of the poor. Schools were created to improve the quality of these homemade laces. Even the nuns taught lacemaking to teach a skill to the young ladies of the town. One such convent in Yougal, county Cork, was among the places where nuns developed their own style of lace and taught it to the local people to help them survive during the potato famine of the 1840’s

It appears the source of the style of lace that was the inspiration for Youghal lace was “Point de France” with its meshwork bars and lack of the dimensionality of Venetian Lace. But Yougal has it’s own distinctive artistic flair, loaded with flowers and fruits of the region. It is truly an “Irish Lace”.

Unlike the coarser homemade laces, Youghal lace is finer and more desirable to the wealthy. But it had to compete with the even finer Belgian laces and did not travel much beyond the British Isles for many years. This is why Yougal lace is harder to find today and not commonly found in lace collections in America
As with most lace, designs changed throughout it’s development. During the last quarter of the 19th century a designer named Alan Cole had much to do with the quality and workmanship of Yougal lace as we know it today. He had many criticisms of its “uncouth” design and strove to improve it into world class lace. Art and Design schools in Ireland and the approaching Arts and Crafts movement of design influenced the lace and it began to win awards beyond it’s island home.

Yougal lace strawberry But as with many laces in Europe, World War I brought the beginning of the end of this fine lace. Between the world wars Yougal continued to be made on a limited basis and in 1960 the last nun died who held it’s secrets. Today we have books on needle lacemaking which help us reproduce some of the look and feel of this wonderful lace and maybe a new lace will develop from its study just as Yougal descended from Venetian and Point de Paris.

An Old article about Yougal

Of all the varieties of Irish lace that are known, Youghal lace is justly regarded as the most beautiful. It is at the same time the most difficult to make as it is worked stitch by stitch without any foundation. The Youghal lace industry had its birth in 1847, the Irish famine year. Mother Margret Smyth, a nun in the presentation, convent of County Cork, horror stricken at the sight of starting women and children around her, conceived the idea of starting some employment which might provide them with bread. But of what that employment should consist of perplexed mother Smyth. It so happens that one day, searching in out of the way nooks and corners, she chanced to light upon a scrap of rare old Italian lace. The moment of inspiration had come. Here was work which might yield bread for the poor hungry girls and children. That lovely scrap should be made to give up the secret of its construction. Setting to work, she picked the lace to pieces, unraveling it unraveling the thread, until at last she fully grasped all the details of the delicate and intricate pattern. Mother Smiths difficulties were however, by no means at an end. Her self imposed task was an arduous one; but at last, after many attempts and repeated disappointments she succeeded in establishing a school for lace which is now of European reputation.

Of the original scrap of old Italian point which served as Mother Smyths model, nothing now remains, as in her eagerness to master its intricacies she unraveled it to the last-ditch as time went on and the workers acquired skill the newly invented stitches made so many changes in the original pattern that at the present Youghal, needlepoint lace may justly claim to be regarded as a purely Irish production. Hundreds of new stitches have been invented, and if the Reds are so complicated as to render it almost impossible to unravel. No words could do justice to the beauty of these almost fairylike productions of the needle, some of which rival the spider’s web in the finance at intricacy of their meshes .

Youghal lace, from the countless number and complicated nature of the stitches, is far more lasting than most other laces, and will bear any amount of wear and tear. After undergoing for years, the process of washing and making up, it will be found as good as ever. The greater part of the lace is made by the girls in the convent, under the supervision of the nuns themselves. Some however is made by the women, married and single, of the surrounding neighborhood. So profitable has the industry proved to these, that many not only support themselves, but also clothe their children on their earnings, while some depend upon it as their sole means of living. Thus the Youghal industry has been the means of dispelling the grim shadows of want and hunger from many a weary home, and enabling numbers to enjoy some of the comforts of life.

E.L.