A taste of café society

I REMEMBER the excitement in the Midlands in the early 1960s when the news filtered through that we were to have a design centre in Kilkenny.

A few years earlier, the Irish Export Board had invited five eminent Scandinavian designers to review the design scene in Ireland. Their report was critical of the low levels of design awareness in this country and suggested setting up design workshops to develop the crafts industry.

The Kilkenny Design Workshops were established in the 18th-century stables opposite Kilkenny Castle. The beautiful and sensitively restored buildings were opened by Patrick Hillery in April 1963.