Thornton Lace evening

Our Wednesday night Heritage Week event in the library was a great success, writes Julie O'Donoghue. Our speaker, Mary Barber, the local expert on the Thornton Lace project, presented it.

The project began in 1847 in the townland of Grangebeg as a response to the devastation locally caused by the Great Famine. Mary brought this period to life for the audience and connected us to this part of our story in a real way.  

Most importantly, she put Martha, aka Mrs W C Roberts, back into her rightful place in the story of An Gorta Mor in our locality.

We were fortunate to also have Irish Crochet Lace expert Kathie Earle with us, with examples that participants could try their hand at.

UPDATE: Geraldine Nugent has since done some digging, and it turns out that our Martha Roberts was actually Elizabeth Roberts! Martha is her mother-in-law. 

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