The Year of Consecrated Life an Ennis Parish Camino Pilgrims From
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The Year of Consecrated Life An Ennis Parish Camino Pilgrims from all over the world have walked the Camino de Santiago or ‘the way of St. James’ to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. To mark the Year of Consecrated Life and to honour and acknowledge the various religious congregations who have ministered in the parish over the years, the Parish of Ennis, Co. Clare had its own ‘Camino’ – walk, road, journey – on the first Sunday in June last. Our walk was from Corrovorrin in the east to Cahercalla in the west of the town – nothing like the distance from Oviedo to Santiago. Pausing along the way at points associated with each congregation and listening to a flavour of each one’s history, it took us all of three hours; the sense of heritage, if not the scenery, en route evoked a great realisation of evolving history, community, change, challenge, generosity, gratitude and a marvelling at the extraordinary ‘providence’ in the unfolding of God’s plan, its richness of giftedness and charism. Assembling at Corrovorrin The starting point in Corrovorrin was at the grave of Sisters Baptist Tobin and Augustine Breen, two Ursuline Sisters who had died in 1831 and 1835 respectively. Local historian, Mr. Larry Brennan, gave an account of the Ursuline ministry of education in Ennis. In January 1829 four professed sisters led by Mother Angela Luby, a novice and two postulants, together with six boarding-school pupils, had taken up residence in Lifford House, Corrovorrin, with the intention of providing education for girls in the town. The house had been purchased by the priests of Killaloe Diocese in the name of Rev. Thomas McInerney, Parish Priest of Feakle, Co. Clare. By the end of March of that year there were 160 pupils; by 1837 there were fourteen professed sisters teaching over 200 pupils. However, financial difficulties were the subject of a court case at the Galway assizes in 1935 arising from which the sisters left for Thurles in 1839. In that same year, the Presentation Sisters in Galway responded to Bishop Patrick Kennedy’s appeal and four sisters, led by Mother Joseph Power, took over from the Ursuline’s to continue the work of education for Catholic girls in the spacious, four-storey Lifford House. They too were quickly faced with financial difficulties and returned to Galway in 1841, a move regretted by the people. In more recent times The Little Sisters of the Assumption lived in Corrovorrin. Five members of that congregation came to Ennis in 1971 at the invitation of Bishop Michael Harty and the prompting of the late Sr. Eucharia Keane, a pioneering Mercy Sister who had left education to do social work and was instrumental in setting up what was to become Clare Social Services. Clare Social Service Council was set up in 1968 as an umbrella organisation to oversee the response to the many emerging social needs throughout the County. Bringing with them much relevant experience and a cheerful, compassionate as well as efficient and professional approach to social work, the Little Sisters made a very significant contribution towards putting Clare Social Services on a sound footing. Now known as Clarecare it is still a very strong service organisation in Co. Clare. The Little Sisters of the Assumption lived at Nos 1 & 2 Corrovorrin Crescent which the Sisters of Mercy purchased from them when they left Ennis in 1985. Mercy Sisters, involved in various ministries, continue to live at Corrovorrin Crescent. A gathering hymn, "Bind us together Lord", was sung and a prayer to St. Ursula recited by the hundreds of people taking part in this parish walk and we moved on to St. Joseph’s hospital. Pilgrims at the ‘Workhouse’ gate Here, Mary Killeen rsm, herself a former lifelong staff-member, told the story of the Sisters of Mercy and the Ennis Workhouse. Later known as the County Home, the Workhouse was opened in 1841, one of 160 such institutions constructed and run in accordance with the Irish Poor Law Act 1838. All were very dismal places, accommodating large numbers in cramped and appalling conditions; by the 1880s the Board of Guardians was finding it difficult to staff the Workhouse and to counter the management irregularities that had crept in. When the Board was presented with the resignation of the Matron at a meeting in 1884 they turned to the Sisters of Mercy and appealed to them to take up nursing and management posts; five sisters, led by Sr. Regis Corcoran, took up residence in April 1885, in a section of the Workhouse specially prepared for them. The following year another sister joined them; three sisters were nurses and were paid ‘£30 per annum without rations’. There were 478 residents and the running-cost allowance was £0-1-11 per person, per week. A chapel where the sisters came together to recite the Divine Office and say the rosary was added to the complex; the residents were curious and many of them also turned up for prayers. The annals tell us that a man remarked one evening: ‘I never in all my life heard such prattling as the nuns had in the chapel. I couldn’t make out a word they were saying’. They were reciting the Office in Latin! Over the years the number of staff, both lay and religious, increased and much effort was made to improve conditions for the residents, culminating in the phased demolition of the old and the building, in the nineteen sixties, of a modern, well-appointed geriatric hospital by the Health Board and Clare County Council. This project was spearheaded by matron, Sr. Aquinas O’Dwyer. The County Home was renamed St. Joseph’s Hospital. A spacious church was added in 1972 to serve hospital residents and the local parish community. Improvements continued and St. Joseph’s now has physiotherapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation services and an Alzheimer’s Unit. The last Sister of Mercy retired from St. Joseph’s in December 2009 leaving a facility that could not have been imagined by the pioneers of 1885 and happy that the Mercy contribution over a span of 124 years had been a truly Gospel ministry to very special people and in the knowledge that the work goes on. The Mercy Prayer for the Sick was distributed and recited by all and to the soft strains of "Lay Your Hands Gently upon Me" the pilgrims resumed their walking. Listening to Br. Seán McNamara The next ‘station’ was the Irish Christian Brothers’ Monastery and schools on New Road where Brother Seán McNamara traced the history of the Brothers in Ennis. Their founder, Brother Edmund Ignatius Rice, was invited by Bishop O’Shaughnessy in 1826 to send brothers to Ennis. In January 1827 Brothers Jerome O’Connor and Ignatius Barry arrived and set up their first school in an old corn store, later moving to Chapel Lane and by 1833 to a new building on the site where the old section of the current primary school still stands. Due to financial and other difficulties the Brothers withdrew from Ennis in 1840 only to return again in 1854 at the request of Dean John Kenny P.P. In August 1868 the foundation stone of the present Monastery was laid and the brothers moved from what Dean Kenny described as ‘a miserable thatched cottage’ to take up residence on New Road in December 1869. Records show that pupils of the CBS were entered for the Intermediate Board examinations in 1882. In 1937 a secondary school was completed. The Brothers have given unbroken service to Catholic education in the Parish of Ennis since 1854; today the schools are part of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust. A hymn, "To Do Your Will is my Desire", a prayer of thanksgiving for Brother Ignatius Rice, and we were on the move again. This time we walked along by the river Fergus, over the Club Bridge and by the ruins of the old Franciscan Abbey, now a flourishing tourist attraction in the care of the OPW, round the corner to Francis Street and the Franciscan Friary where we were welcomed by Fr. Jim Hassan OFM. A native of Derry, Fr. Jim had only very recently arrived in Ennis. The Franciscans are thought to have come to Ennis in 1240 – the date is not known for sure – and were given hospitality by Donnachadh Cairbeach O’Brien who had moved the royal seat of the O’Brien’s from Limerick to Ennis. At that time Friars settled wherever they were made welcome, gathered some followers and a new group moved on. To quote Fr. Patrick Conlan OFM ‘they did not bother much about paperwork or canonical permission but allowed themselves to be guided by the Spirit’. Another O’Brien, named Turlough, built the old Franciscan Abbey on the banks of the Fergus; it would be the burial place for generations of O’Brien’s as well as the foundation of the town of Ennis. Through turbulent times the Abbey served as a venue for the assize courts, as apartments for the Privy Council of Elizabeth I and as a jail. Following the Cromwellian desecration the Abbey fell into ruin; it became the property of the Church of Ireland Parish of Drumcliffe who graciously gifted it back to the Franciscan Order after it had been eventually taken in charge by the Board of Works in 1969. The story of the Franciscans in Ennis is fascinating; it is one of suppression and revival, persecution and survival, living in the Abbey, hiding-out in the countryside or fleeing to the Continent, until Catholic Emancipation in 1829 made it safe to re-establish openly.