This article was first published in Mercy Live in June 2004 and tells the story of the founding of the Convent of Mercy in Athlone, Co Westmeath. The convent was very important to Athlone and the Sisters were well loved. The convent closed in July 2004 when the last of the Sisters left. The author of this article, Sr. Laurentia Flaherty moved to Galway and has since deceased.
Founding of Athlone Convent of Mercy 1854 – 2004
Under the full Harvest Moon of August 22nd, 1853, a small band of Sisters left Limerick to establish a Convent of Mercy in Roscommon Town. The Sisters travelled by steamer up the Shannon to Athlone. Just as the “Lady Burgoyne” steamed into the wharf that evening, the Angelus bell rang out as if to welcome the Sisters. It was a happy omen.
Four years later, on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th, 1857, Athlone again welcomed Sisters. Four were from Roscommon, among them Mother Vincent Hartnett who was a great friend of our Foundress Catherine McAuley and the first to write Catherine’s biography. They had come to start a convent in Athlone called “The Annunciation”.
The circumstances surrounding the foundation of this convent were quite unique. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Athlone was a garrison town and had a large Protestant population. Catholics – even the better off – found it difficult to get higher education.
Archdeacon O’Reilly, the Administrator of Athlone, realised that there was a pressing need for a Pension School for upper and middle class Catholics. His appeal was met shortly after the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in Athlone and an Intermediate School was founded in the old town on the Shannon. It was primarily a boarding school. This school flourished, the students receiving scholarships and calls to training colleges in Belfast. Results of Leaving and Intermediate Cert examinations from 1923 to 1973 are still to be found in the Athlone Archives. In 1942, the Intermediate School became an all Irish secondary school – Scoil Pheadair.
Owing to circumstances beyond our control at the time, Scoil Pheadair was transferred, in 1965, to our Summerhill Convent and continues to flourish there.
The three storied house to which the first Sisters came, had stables which proved very useful indeed. Immediately they began to reconstruct them for use as classrooms for the younger children of the town. The Annals tell us that the school had 650 “of all classes” on roll by the end of the century. In 1934, the doors of today’s senior primary school were opened, and the inscription on the front door attracts tourists to stand and decipher the words:
“An Scoil Chluineach ar choimirce NN Peadar agus Pol Scoil Naisiunta 1934”
The school is built on the site of the only Cluniac monastery in Ireland. The monks arrived in Athlone in the 12th century and remained until the Reformation. King John’s castle, built on their land, is an outstanding feature of the west side of the town overlooking the Shannon.
Later on in the 1960’s, owing to the increasing number of pupils, a new infant school – St. Paul’s – was built. A magnificent sculpture of St. Paul on his horse attracts passers-by. Not so noticeable, but still interesting, is the little cemetery in the small corner of the children’s large playing area. Here lie the remains of the nineteen Sisters who died between 1858 and 1919. Due to the overflow of water from the Shannon, the cemetery had to be closed. This is the smallest graveyard in Ireland. Each November, the Sisters would take their pupils there to pray for the faithful departed.
The Sanctuary, Convent Chapel, St. Peter’s, Athlone
Returning to the early days of St. Peter’s Convent – the name it now bears – we learn that the Sister’s showed great initiative and were extremely far seeing in many respects. Near the convent stood an old brewery which the Sister’s converted into a House of Mercy to train and provide employment for 35 girls. The house became self-supporting as a public laundry which flourished and lasted until 1985.
Visitation of the sick and poor was always of primary concern. Just one week ago Jimmy O’Connor of Goldsmith’s Terrace told me that “the Sisters were so loved and respected that they were often called out at night to comfort the dying.”
One may ask what means of income had the Sisters in the beginning? The people of Athlone were always friendly and generous to them and gave them land which enabled them to be self-supporting. Like our Foundress before them, they organised bazaars and charity sermons. Sisters’ relatives were also generous to the community. For so long now the convent has been like a bulwark, protecting the many houses in the surrounding area.
Isn’t it ironic that I should be asked to write its founding story on the eve of its closure! We do not find it easy at times to understand the plans which providence has in store for us! Very soon the convent building will be but a memory. “We have not here a lasting city“. But its glory does not lie in bricks and mortar but in the countless variety of seeds which have been sown by the Sisters who have crossed its threshold. And now as you read this brief account of its history, the members of the present community here will have crossed that threshold for the last time.
Sic transit gloria mundi
Sr. Laurentia Flaherty, a retired Post Primary Teacher of Scoil Pheadair now moves to St. Vincent’s Convent in Galway, Ireland.
Laurentia Flaherty rsm
Western Province
