This year two Sisters – Anne O’Callaghan and Joan O’Carroll retired from Nenagh Primary School. The Parish marked the occasion with a ‘thank you’ celebration of all the Sisters have done down through the years and continue to do in Nenagh. One of their past pupils, Margaret Roche Scroope, gave the homily on the occasion. The following is an extract:
Srs. Peggy Collins and Joan O’Carroll
‘The last Irish foundation before Catherine McAuley’s death was in Birr. The first foundation of the Birr convent was made in Nenagh in 1854. The Bishop of Killaloe Daniel Vaughan invited the Sisters to Nenagh to take charge of the national school for girls.
When they came they found a town struggling from the horrors of “Black Forty-Seven”. Unlike Birr, Nenagh did not escape the effects of the famine. Newspaper reports of heart-rending scenes outside Nenagh workhouse survive.
The Sisters’ first house was in Summerhill and it was the first of three moves they made before settling finally in the old jail in 1887.
Margaret Roche Scroope
One of the most striking aspects of the schools for the poor in the mid 19th century was the very large numbers of pupils in relation to the number of teachers. A ratio of nearly one hundred pupils to one teacher would not have been unusual. The monitors, who were usually older pupils, aged from 14 to 17 years learned the teaching methods under supervision and taught the younger children.
A Sunday school was opened to cater mainly for girls in domestic service. Many women were taught to read, write and do simple accounts. Several elderly women came and applied themselves diligently until they succeeded.
Home visitation of the sick, was a most important part of the Mercy apostolate in Nenagh. The Sisters cared for the poor and sick in the most needed places.
Nenagh convent annals are the source material for contemporary accounts of local history.
The Sisters of Mercy were pioneers in the spheres of pastoral visitation. Through them for the first time since the Reformation the Church in Killaloe diocese had an organised systematic caring service for the poor.
Sr. Anne O’Callaghan
During these years financial concerns were exercising constraints on the Nenagh nuns. The works of mercy were increasing and a greater number of Sisters were required. The Nenagh community now numbered eleven. Sisters sold their personal property to ensure continuance. Records show that Mother Clare sold little scraps of property which she had inherited.
“The schools in Chapel Lane were becoming more dilapidated and Mother Anastasia Beckett mobilised support for the possible purchase of part of Old Nenagh prison for use as a convent and schools. On 24th June, 1887 the Governor’s house and grounds, the entire female prison, the two infirmaries and four prison blocks were handed over for educational and technical purposes to the Sisters of Mercy”. The annalist describes leaving the old house in Castle Street, on 9th October, 1888. She describes the beds being lifted up Peter Street like headless carriages, which was thronged with pigs and sellers for it was the eve of a fair.
The jail served as classrooms for the next twenty years. One by one the buildings were utilised, from the Governor’s house for the convent, to the stores, which formed the national schools. Every effort was made to induce the children to attend school regularly.
Mercy Sisters who have taught in Nenagh Primary School
A number of initiatives were set up in a technical department attached to the school. Sewing machines were purchased, tables made and a large room in the prison school was given over to a needlework class. One of the workshops in the prison block was renovated as a cookery and laundry room.
Many girls cycled in long distances to the school from the surrounding countryside. The Sisters availed of every opportunity to broaden the educational facilities for girls and women in Nenagh. At the end of the 19th century, the impact on the community was multi-dimensional. There was an organised and systematic caring service for the poor in place. Their commitment to the vision of education for girls and women was attended to by the provision of schools at primary, secondary and technical level.
In 1958 in response to a request from a Parish Priest in Mississippi for Sisters to staff a grade school, Mother Paul Leahy took seven volunteers from Nenagh. In appointing a young Sr. de Lourdes Lillis as Superior she was modelling the example of Catherine McAuley a century earlier.
Three years later Sr. de Lourdes and five others undertook to open a school and convent on a green field site in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Meantime here in Nenagh, the schools flourished and the need for further accommodation was apparent.
Without state grants, the Sisters at great personal expense” undertook to raise funds for St. Joseph’s School by organising sales of work, raffles and the famous silver circle, which attracted a great audience on a Wednesday night.
These Sisters pioneered new systems in Nenagh. Their belief was that every child should be given the tools to achieve her full potential. Few schools in Ireland of the time engaged a drama producer of the calibre of Tomas McAnna (recently deceased) to come from Dublin. They also brought the Shakespearean actors Anew McMaster and others to help open the minds of young girls to the beauty of theatre and literature. Each week a gym and dance teacher was engaged – classes which are now expected as the norm but not in the bleak Ireland of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Srs. Ann Ryan and Gemma Doolaghty
Sadly youth at the time might not always have appreciated the input of the Sisters, prepared to sacrifice their free time to give us extra tuition after school. But life is a great tutor.
Societies can forget that they became great through the unremembered idealists that are its ordinary teachers, carers and listeners
The Mercy influence has impacted in so many ways on the generations of Mercy girls who passed through St. Mary’s on their way to great futures. The human greatness of talented and gifted Mercy Teachers is what we remember, salute and celebrate here this evening.
In Carol Anne Duffy’s words:
“Love spins gold, gold, gold, from straw” so to you, Sr. Ann O’Callaghan and Sr. Joan O’Carroll, and all the Nenagh Sisters of Mercy our sincere thanks and our wish for continued blessings in your work and lives to all Mercy sisters’.
Margaret Corkery rsm
South Central Province
