Dun Emer Guild

The Dun Emer Guild (1902–1964) was an Irish Arts and Crafts textile studio founded in 1902 by Evelyn Gleeson, initially in partnership with Elizabeth and Lily Yeats as Dun Emer Industries and Press.

History

The Dun Emer Guild was the textile producing arm of Dun Emer Industries, which was founded in 1902 by Evelyn Gleeson, Elizabeth and her sister Lily Yeats with funding from Augustine Henry and a sum of money Gleeson inherited.[1] The company was run out of Gleeson's home, Dun Emer in Dundrum. The house and administration of the company was overseen by Gleeson's widowed sister, Constance MacCormack. MacCormack and her three children, Kitty, Grace, and Edward lived with Gleeson after the death of MacCormack's husband c. 1902.[2]

The Dun Emer studio and press were named after Emer, daughter of Forgall Monach, wife of the hero Cúchulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, a figure famous for her artistic skills.[1] The Guild's workshops were located on the top floor of Dun Emer. Their products regularly won prizes at exhibitions run by the Irish Industries Association and the Royal Dublin Society. The Guild exhibited at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair, in the United States as part of the Irish Industrial Exhibition. The Guild became noted for their hand woven carpets and tapestries which incorporated Celtic knotwork and interlace,[3] such as the tapestry panel of A voyage to Tir-na-noge designed by Mary Galway Houston in 1903.[4]

By 1908, Gleeson's and the Yeats sisters' relationship had become strained, with the Yeats sisters leaving Dun Emer with their private press, which they renamed the Cuala Press. Gleeson continued on as the Dun Emer Guild designing and creating textiles. By this time her two nieces, Kitty and Grace, along with Henry's niece May Kerley, were all employed in the Guild[3][1][5] as well as bookbinder Norah Fitzpatrick, and Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh.[2]

Some of the most notable works from the Guild are the tapestries for the Honan Chapel, Cork[6][7][8] in 1917, the vestments for St Patrick's church, San Francisco in 1923, and a carpet presented to Pope Pius XI in 1931.[2] The carpet was commissioned in an effort by Ireland's ambassador to the Vatican, Charles Bewley, to secure Ireland as the host of the 1932 International Eucharistic Congress. As "The Pope's Carpet" it was exhibited in Clerys from 19 to 30 January 1931.[9] A dress designed by MacCormack for Clare Kennedy, the wife of Hugh Kennedy, is on display as part of the exhibition The Way We Wore in the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks.[10][11]

After Gleeson's death in 1944, MacCormack continued to run Dun Emer Guild until its store on Harcourt Street closed c. 1964.[2][12][13]

References
  1. "The Dun Emer Press". Modernist Archives Publishing Project. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  2. "Papers of Evelyn Gleeson and the Dun Emer Guild". Irish Archives Resource. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  3. Paterson, Elaine C. (2013). "Crafting Empire: Intersections of Irish and Canadian Women's History". Journal of Canadian Art History. 34 (2): 243–267. doi:10.2307/jcanaarthist.34.2.243. ISSN 0315-4297. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  4. White, Lawrence William (2009). "Houston, Mary Galway". In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. "Private Presses and Illustration". Drawn to the Page. Trinity College Dublin. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  6. Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth (1 January 2000). "Heavens' Embroidered Cloths - textiles from the Honan Chapel, University College Cork, Ireland". Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  7. "Poetry Day Ireland: A Moving House by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin". RTÉ Culture. RTÉ. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  8. Raguin, Virginia (1 January 2017). "An Túr Gloine (Tower of Glass) at the Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart". Interfaces. Image Texte Language (38): 39–64. ISSN 1164-6225. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  9. Shortall, Billy (2020-06-25). "The story behind Ireland's 1931 gift of a carpet to the pope". RTÉ Brainstorm. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  10. "The Way We Wore - The Costume Society". costumesociety.org.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  11. "CLARE KENNEDY WEARING CELTIC REVIVAL COSTUME". Inspiring Ireland. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  12. Devine, Ruth (2009). "Gleeson, Evelyn". In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  13. "Learn: Cuala Press". Yeats Society Sligo. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
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