An Túr Gloine (; Irish for "The Glass Tower") was a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

studio for

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

and '' opus sectile'' artists from 1903 until 1944, based in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland.

History

An Túr Gloine was conceived of in late 1901 and established January 1903 at 24 Upper Pembroke Street,

, Ireland, on the site of two former tennis courts. It was active throughout the first half of the 20th century. Affiliated artists included Michael Healy,

Evie Hone Eva Sydney Hone RHA (22 April 1894 – 13 March 1955), usually known as Evie, was an Irish painter and stained glass artist.Nicola Gordon Bowe (May 2009)Hone, Eva Sydney (1894–1955) ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online editi ...

Beatrice Elvery Beatrice Moss Elvery, RHA (1881, Dublin – 1970, Rockall, Sandycove) was an Irish painter, stained-glass artist and sculptor. Early life Beatrice Moss Elvery was born in 1881, the second daughter of the Dublin businessman, William Elvery, ...

, Wilhelmina Geddes, Catherine O'Brien, Kathleen Quigly, and founder Sarah Purser. The original impetus for the project, spurred by the Irish cultural activist

Edward Martyn Edward Martyn (30 January 1859 – 5 December 1923) was an Irish playwright and early republican political and cultural activist, as the first president of Sinn Féin from 1905–1908. Early life Martyn was the elder son of John Martyn of Tul ...

, was the building of the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

cathedral in Loughrea,

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

, which was to become St Brendan's. Purser and Martyn hoped to provide an alternative to the commercial stained glass imported from England and Germany for Irish churches and other architectural projects. Purser's knowledge of French and English medieval glass, together with her social connections and organizational skills, were crucial to the success of the cooperative. A writer for '' The Studio'', a magazine of

fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Fran Fine, the title character of ''The Nanny'' * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (p ...

and

applied art The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Univ ...

, called the recently formed An Túr Gloine "perhaps the most noteworthy example of the newly awakened desire to foster Irish genius," describing it as "at once a craft school, where instruction in every detail connected with the designing and production of stained glass is given to the workers, and a factory from which some beautiful work has already appeared." The writer also extolled the economic benefits of an Irish glass industry to supply churches. The studio is regarded as part of the

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

,Ellen Mary Easton McLeod, ''In Good Hands: The Women of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild'' (McGill-Queen's Press, 1999), pp. 55 and 68 (note 24
online.
/ref> but was infused also with the contemporary spirit of Irish revivalism and drew on the artistic tradition of Celtic

manuscript illumination An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers and liturgical books such as psalters and ...

. Ireland became an internationally renowned center of stained-glass art at this time, to a large extent as a result of An Túr Gloine.Terence Brown, ''Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922 to the Present'' (Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 7
online
''The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture'', p. 542. The studio was run by Purser until 1940, and she was succeeded by Catherine O'Brien who ran it until 1944. After which time O'Brien bought the studio and leased a large section of it to Patrick Pollen.

Relation to literary culture

A commission for An Túr Gloine occasioned an outburst of criticism in ''Samhain'' magazine from the Irish poet W. B. Yeats on how the " bourgeois mind is never sincere in the arts":

Works

The following table provides examples of work commissioned from the studio or created by individual artists associated with An Túr Gloine.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:An Tur Gloine Irish stained glass artists and manufacturers Glassmaking companies of Ireland Defunct glassmaking companies Defunct companies of Ireland Manufacturing companies based in Dublin (city) Manufacturing companies established in 1903 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1944 1903 establishments in Ireland 1944 disestablishments in Ireland Design companies established in 1903 Design companies disestablished in 1944