On Saturday 23 March 2024, after a break of more than 4 years caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, we were delighted to welcome lace makers, lace artists, lace historians, lace enthusiasts and lace curious participants back.
The Amazing Lace Symposium 2024 was, once again, hosted by the fabulous Absolute Hotel, situated on the banks of the Abbey River. The Events team at the Absolute was formidable in listening to every one of our ideas and making sure the venue was fitted to our needs.
The symposium opened at 10 am, with a welcome address by Cllr. Gerald Mitchell, Mayor of Limerick , who mentioned the history of lace in Limerick and the efforts of Friends of Lace Limerick to bring our rich lace heritage to public attention.
The first morning session included three talks focusing on Limerick and its lace making history:
Dr. Matthew Potter, curator of the Limerick Museum, spoke about Limerick lace – the once famous Limerick industry
Sharon Slater, historian, gave a fascinating talk about The Hands Behind the Stitches. As the audience requested it strongly, Sharon published her article on her website.
The third and last talk in this section was presented in tandem by Randel Hodkinson and Grania McElligott, who spoke about The enduring legacy of Maude Kearney
After the break, we had the pleasure of listening to Bairbre Guilfoyle’s keynote talk: Lacemaking in Ireland: Looking forward, looking back.
Bairbre Guilfoyle
The next section was dedicated to three contributions from invited lacemakers and lace artists:
- Fiona Harrington and Maureen Murray from The Irish Crochet Lace Revival Group,- Threading the Tower- a community lace project
- Eilís Nic Dhonncha – Headford Lace Project, Seven Years On
- Nora Finnegan – Kenmare and other Irish Laces – a historical perspective. Nora’s contribution was a pre-recorded video, as she couldn’t attend in person.
We had a lovely lunch in the “Harry’s on the River” restaurant. We were really spoiled by our hosts!
In the afternoon, Gabriela Avram spoke about the Laces of Ireland – an all-Ireland Lace Trail project
The panel titled “This precious lace – storage, conservation, repair” included panelists presentations and discussions . The panelists were Kathie Earle(Irish Crochet teacher, GOIL) , Zara Power(Limerick Museum) and Sr. Bernadette Kopek, Charleville Sisters of Mercy.
The symposium ended with a panel dedicated to “Keeping the craft alive in the 21st century“, including short invited talks and facilitating a conversation among participants. The panelists were Panelists: Jackie Magnin (Headford Lace Project), Eithne Guilfoyle (GOIL) and Fiona Harrington, lace artist, educator and researcher.
A pop-up lace exhibition hosted in the same venue accompanied the event. The attendees were able to admire antique and contemporary lace from the personal collections of the participants.
We are grateful to Dr. Matthew Potter, Dr. Zara Power and the Limerick Museum for all their kind support in organising this event. The Limerick Museum stayed open after 5pm to facilitate visitors who attended the symposium and wanted to see the Maude Kearney exhibition.
We are most grateful to all the staff in the Absolute Hotel Limerick , who provided all the facilities and took special care of us! We also appreciated the exquisite food and the lovely atmosphere in the restaurant! Thank you! We’ll be back next year!
We received excellent feedback from the 70+participants, and we are already looking forward to the next edition.
This event was supported by Limerick City and County Council through the Festival and Events Grant Scheme.
Leave a Reply