Letter Francois to Ryelandt re Art School

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Letter to Mr. D.M. in Mark. 2023-10-20/826 The Benedictines of Maredsous have established a foundation here and have commenced to develop it on the lines of the parent house. Maredsous is, and Glenstal is intended to be, a settlement (not merely monastery) first, for the extension of the Order of Saint Benedict, secondly, to provide education of the type which many middle class Irish families now seek at Ampleford, England, and thirdly, to train country boys in arts and crafts. The latter work has been carried to a very high degree of development in Maredsous: blacksmiths, woodworkers and metal workers, enamellers, carvers of ivories and precious stones have been and are being trained there in large numbers. They are taught the principles and history of art and designing as well as the actual handicraft. I know that you do not need to be told how backward we are in all these matters in Ireland, how lacking we are in teachers and how amateurish and ineffective are our own efforts at organisation. You know also how difficult it would be to assemble a body of such competent artistic men as the Benedictines and how altogether impossible it would be, and what cost, for our Government to set up an organisation such as they provide ready-made. We have not the trouble of initiating it nor the responsibility of providing for its continuity. We need not pass Acts or build houses or pay teachers. Glenstal provides an opportunity of immediately commencing the work of the restoration of a native art and native culture. Italian reproductions, German lithographs, French bric a brac, English brummagen have for too many centuries been our only standards of beauty and art. It is high