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Career as educator
James Brenan began his educational career after his study at the "South Kensington Training School" where he sparked an ambition for promoting design to be applied specifically for industry as per the beliefs of the South Kensington school method, noticing a need for art education to boost vocation in the arts. He took up teaching art in schools around the United Kingdom, namely in Liverpool, Yarmouth and Liverpool, before returning to Ireland where he would hone his enthusiasm for design education in a seat of advantage.

Upon his return home to Dublin, Brenan was appointed as headmaster of the Cork School of Art in 1860. In his thirty-some year tenure as headmaster in Crawford, he set into motion his promotion of art design for industry in the form of workshops - the first of which was for the Convent of Mary in Kinsale, County Cork in 1884. This industrious movement expanded into the homes of housewives who determined to generate independent income for themselves, and in turn, generate product for an industry. Lace design and craft became expeditious in growth from Munster outward, and is celebrated for its lace to this day.

Brenan was offered the position of headmaster of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Arts, which he promptly took up in 1889. The DMSA was the hub of the fine arts in Ireland at the time, and was the birthplace of many crucial figures in Irish art, and still is to this day under the name "National College of Art and Design".

In the fifteen years serving the DMSA as headmaster, Brenan was largely responsible for shifting the focus of the school's teaching methods away from being centered on fine arts education and theory for single, practical application, to implementing craft design classes for industry use.

These classes, like the ones he offered to the convents, followed the ideals of the South Kensington teaching style which Brenan so admired - fostering a sense of practical application of the skills learned to train future artisans in lace-making, metalwork, sculpting, etc.

In the twilight of his role as headmaster, Brenan remained interested in good lace design, passing published comment on the product coming from the Munster region, and travelling around Europe to learn educational techniques to be applied to his domain. James Brenan retired from the DMCA in 1904 having left a deep impression on the artisinal industries of Ireland and the promotion of practical applications of art design in the top art schools in the country.