Lásadóireacht i nGaillimh / Lacemaking in Galway: skills and stories is a celebration of lacemaking in County Galway. With an exhibition, workshops, demonstrations, and talks with lacemakers and historians taking place over five days, this pop-up festival showcases the skill and creativity of lacemakers in Galway and the stories – historical and present-day – entangled with the craft of lacemaking in Ireland and beyond.
The festival runs from Tuesday 28 April to Saturday 2 May 2026.
All events are free and open to the public at the Galway City Museum, Galway City Centre Library, and the University of Galway. Note, the lacemaking workshops require registration in advance, details below.
Schedule of Activities
When Lace Speaks: Interpreting Headford Lace
Talk and Demonstration by the Headford Lace Project
📅 Tuesday 28 April, 10:30 am – 12 pm
📍 Galway City Centre Library Events Room
Many lacemakers of the past were illiterate: they are people who leave little trace in the written record. However, the lace they laboured to produce tells its own story – if historians are willing to listen. This illustrated presentation discusses some of the ways we can learn about the lives of lacemakers from the fragments of lace they left behind, to be followed by a Q&A and demonstration.
Irish lacemaking introductory workshops
📅 Tuesday 28 April and Thursday 30 April
📍 Galway City Centre Library Events Room
Join us for introductory workshops in three Irish lacemaking techniques, delivered by members of the Corrib Lacemakers. To register, please email lacemakingingalway@gmail.com (register early, spaces are limited!).
- Tuesday 28 April, 12 pm – 3 pm: Carrickmacross Lace – Introductory Beginners (Tutor: Aine Hanrahan) *FULLY BOOKED!*
- Thursday 30 April, 10:30 am – 1:30 pm: Youghal Lace – Introductory beginners (Tutor: Gráinne Griffin) *FULLY BOOKED!*
- Thursday 30 April, 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm: Irish crochet lace – Beginners, please note that basic crochet skills are required for this workshop (Tutor: Colette Kelly) *FULLY BOOKED!*
POP-UP EXHIBITION: Léargas ar Ghaillimh trí Chró na Snáthaide / A glimpse of Galway through the eye of the needle
📅 Thursday 30 April – Saturday 2 May, 10 am – 4:30 pm
📍Galway City Museum Education Room
Demonstrations by members of the Corrib Lacemakers throughout the day.
Corrib Lacemakers/ Lásadóirí na Coiribe are a group of lacemakers based in County Galway who practice lacemaking techniques from across Ireland, employing traditional patterns as well as new designs inspired by the landscapes and histories of Ireland’s West. This exhibition includes work that celebrates the Claddagh, visible just across the river from the Galway City Museum.
Drop-in Lacemakers’ Circle
📅 Thursday 30 April and Friday 1 May, 11 am – 12 pm
📍 Galway City Museum Education Room
Show us what you’re working on! Bring your lace, needlework, or another portable handcraft project in progress, and join us for an hour of chat and handwork.
Obair na mBan / Women’s Work
Lacemakers and visual artists Fiona Harrington and Jack O’Meara in conversation
📅 Thursday 30 April, 2 – 4 pm
📍 Hardiman Building Seminar Room THB-G010, University of Galway
Feel free to bring lace, needlework, or another portable handcraft project in progress to work on during the event.
Join us for a conversation about lace in Irish social history, craft apprenticeship, and new work in needlepoint lace with lacemaker, visual artist and educator Fiona Harrington and visual artist Jack O’Meara, chaired by Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for Irish Studies Dr. Molly-Claire Gillett. As a duo, Harrington and O’Meara recently received the Homo Faber Fellowship for the transmission of craft skills from master artisans to emerging talents, and collaborated on Obair na mBan, which explores Irish women’s labour, lives and legacies in needlepoint lace and was exhibited at Milan Design Week (2025).
Stories and Patterns
Molly-Claire Gillett, author of Irish Lacemaking: art, industry and cultural practice and Máire Treanor, author of Clones Lace: the stories and patterns of an Irish Crochet in conversation
📅 Saturday 2 May, 2 – 3 pm
📍 Galway City Museum Education Room
Join Clones crochet lacemaker, designer and historian Máire Treanor and lace historian Dr. Molly-Claire Gillett for a conversation about the relationship between craft skills and histories in lace research to launch Treanor’s new edition of Clones Lace: the story and patterns of an Irish crochet (The Lace Museum, 2026) and Gillett’s Irish Lacemaking: art, industry and cultural practice (Bloomsbury, 2025), which includes a discussion of Treanor’s crochet lace teaching and designing. Copies of Clones Lace will be for sale.
