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Go to Castlebar ] [ The BB Index ] [ Disclaimer ] [Nostalgia Board ] [Main BB ] [Roots ] [NB Refresh for current version and all follow-ups] Posted by Mrsk on August 01, 2004 at 23:52:39: In Reply to: Major Exhibition - 100 years ago posted by Royal on July 30, 2004 at 18:09:17: Excerpted from John Cunningham's 'Labour in the west of Ireland' "Another aristocratic businesswoman was Lady Lucan, who founded a woollen industry at Castlebar in the early 1890s, reviving in the process skills that were only recently extinct. She employed eighty 'occupants of poor cabins' on her family's estate by 1898. These were paid for their labour after the tweed was sold in England. Her ladyship's social contacts proved valuable in persuading the well-to-do that peasant handicrafts were the hautest couture that they could invest in, and among those who was persuaded to disport herself in a 'Castlebar Cloak' was the Queen herself. Further free advertising was secured by Lady Lucan when she displayed the results of her enterprise, as well as other local produce, on her lawn, at the annual Mayo Industries Exhibition.25 "
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