Limerick lace

Until John Heathcoat invented a net-making machine in Devon in 1815, handmade net was a very expensive fabric.

In 1829, Walker brought over 24 girls to teach lace-making in Limerick, drawn to the area by the availability of cheap, skilled female labour, and his business thrived.

Limerick lace was disseminated widely throughout Ireland by Catholic religious sisters, anxious to provide employment at the time of the Famine.

They introduced it to several other convents, including religious houses in Youghal, Kinsale, Dunmore East, Cahirciveen, and Kenmare.

"[1] It was revived in the 1880s due to the work of Florence Vere O'Brien (1858-1936) who established a Lace School in Limerick, which opened with eight pupils in May 1889.

In 1904, Mrs Maude Kearney (1873-1963), a daughter of James Hodkinson, founder of the famous firm of specialists in church decoration in Henry Street, Limerick, established a lace making business which she called the Thomond Lace Industry.

Based in Thomondgate, Thomond Lace employed between fifty and eighty workers at the height of its success.

Those who are known to have worn Limerick lace were Queen Victoria, Edith Roosevelt and Countess Markievicz.

In 2019, Veronica Rowe, the granddaughter of Florence Vere O'Brien, handed over her lace collection on longterm loan to the Limerick Museum.

For August 2025, Limerick Museum is planning a lace exhibition that will include the highlights of all its collections.