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. Above all, the Franciscan story is one of men of incredible courage and tenacity; of great and unique characters who braved all adversity, sustained by the common thread of faith in their God and commitment to the people. The present Friary, formerly Willow Bank House, was acquired on behalf of the Friars in 1853 and they transferred there in 1854 – the same year the Sisters of Mercy came to Ennis and the Christian Brothers returned. The present Friary church opened in 1856. The Friars continue to have an active pastoral and cultural role in the local community and are much loved and appreciated in return.

From the Franciscan Friary, singing "Christ be Beside Me", the pilgrims wended their way the short distance along Francis Street to the Poor Clare Sisters’ Monastery, dedicated to Our Lady Queen of the Universe. Here they were warmly welcomed by Sr. Gabrielle in the Sisters’ beautiful Chapel where there was standing room only by the time everyone had squeezed in. The Poor Clare’s are contemplative nuns founded by St. Clare and St. Frances of Assisi in 1212. The Rule of St. Clare was approved by Pope Innocent IV on the day before St. Clare’s death in 1253. They first came to Ireland in 1629 and suffered many setbacks in the ensuing centuries. In March 1957 the late Bishop Joseph Rodgers laid the foundation stone for the Poor Clare Monastery in Ennis to which the Sisters arrived from Cork on 7 October 1958. They now number eleven and come from various parts of Ireland but have put down strong Clare and Ennis roots. The sisters see themselves as a voice before the Father for all the people of God. They spend their time in union with God through the Liturgy of the Hours and Contemplation, with the Eucharist as the centre of their day. They share with each other in community a family spirit of joy, mutual encouragement and support. In Ennis the Poor Clare Sisters are treasured as an integral part of the parish and local community in the same spirit of mutual support. The Monastery is a symbol of life dedicated to God in a particular ministry of prayer, a beacon of hope and love for all.

In the Chapel of the Poor Clare Monastery

Singing "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God" we arrived at the Templegate Hotel Plaza, site of the original Mercy Convent. Here Canice Hanrahan rsm briefly told the story of Catherine McAuley and the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in Baggot St., Dublin in 1831. To make the link with the Ennis chapter of Mercy history she drew attention to the tall, plain cross beside the Cathedral Sts. John and Paul, Ennis which commemorates the Parish Mission of November 1853. At the end of the mission a meeting of parishioners, chaired by Bishop Vaughan, resolved to invite the Sisters of Mercy to open a house in Ennis ‘for the promotion of Catholic education in this and the adjoining parishes’. Dean John Kenny P.P., was dispatched to Limerick to make the request of Mother Elizabeth Moore. Led by Mother Vincent McMahon, four sisters arrived in Ennis the following May and took up residence at Row House which had been rented by Dean Kenny in Arthur’s Row, off O’Connell Square. The Dean’s sister, Catherine Kenny, was a benefactress and lived in the convent for ten years until her death and is buried in the convent cemetery. Immediately on arrival the Sisters started teaching with an enrolment of 400 girls. In response to the same committee, the Christian Brothers had already returned to Ennis earlier that year and started teaching boys.

The early years were ones of expansion as the original group was joined by many young women. By 1860 a second-level boarding and day school was added. Land was acquired from Edward Gore, convent and schools were extended, an orphanage, a knitting enterprise, a bakery, a centre for the making of Altar Breads for the Diocese of Killaloe and a commercial laundry were opened. In 1941 the second-level school moved to College Road making way for further expansion of the primary facility. This in turn moved to the magnificent, state-of- the-art Holy Family Schools on Station Road in 1965. The secondary school, Coláiste Muire, was transferred to the CEIST Trust in 2007 and more recently the Holy Family Schools to the Killaloe Diocese. The old convent was sold in the early 1990s and a new, more compact building provided on Bóthar na Trócaire.

Requests to the Ennis community for new foundations were positively responded to. Between 1872 and 1878 forty five sisters left for missions overseas in the USA, New Zealand and Australia. Nearer home the sisters answered calls to Ennistymon, to the workhouses in Ennis, Roscrea and Corofin and to open a school in Killaloe. In the twentieth century a secondary school was opened in Spanish Point, two elementary schools in California, a community established in Shannon and two centres of further education in Kenya, East Africa. Sr. Clare O’Neill served for seven years in Iceland. Dean Kenny, Bishop Vaughan and all those who attended that Parish Mission meeting in 1853 could not have imagined the fruits it would bear. Sisters of Mercy endeavour to follow the example of Catherine McAuley in living their lives in the service of others in union with Christ, in prayer and in imitation of His own compassionate service of those in need of love and healing. Copies of Catherine’s Suscipe were distributed and recited by all and singing "Seek ye First the Kingdom of God", made our way through the typically narrow streets of the town through Chapel Lane, site of the first church in Ennis; Lysaght’s Lane where the Franciscans once took shelter and Garraun na Cille, now a car park but once a public cemetery. We sang "Faith is flowing like a River" and prayed for all those interred in that unlikely spot.

Erected by the Ennis Sculpture Initiative in appreciation of the Sisters of Mercy

St. Clare’s Close off the Turnpike, was our next stop. Here the role of the Brothers of Charity and the Sisters of Mercy were remembered for their pioneering assistance towards meeting the special educational needs of young people from throughout the county. A school, named St. Clare’s, was set up on a voluntary basis by Ennis and District Soroptimist’s and Dr. Joe Solan, Medical Officer, in the old Turnpike Dispensary. The first pupils came from Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital and from the special Unit in St. Joseph’s Hospital, known as St. Senan’s, run by Sr. Carmel Scanlan rsm, for young people with disabilities. The school was recognised by the Department of Education and opened in 1967 by the late Dr. Patrick Hillery, then Minister for Education. The first teacher and principal was Mrs Eileen Jones with Sr. Eileen Killoury rsm, as deputy principal. It was not possible to sustain the level of voluntary work involved in transporting pupils daily from around the county so the Brothers of Charity responded to the obvious need and opened two residential facilities in Ennis where young people could live Monday to Friday each week while attending school. This improved the quality of life for pupils and families alike. The Brothers later extended their ministry to sheltered workshops; St. Clare’s moved in 1986 to new purpose-built premises on the Gort Road. Margaret McNamara recalled happy and fruitful days in St. Clare’s School on this old site and thanked the local community who helped in making it such a success. The Dispensary was demolished and replaced by a small cluster of houses named St. Clare’s Close. The final lines of Margaret’s poignant prayer were: ‘Blessed are those who give without hope of return, they will give people an experience of God’.

The longest leg of our pilgrimage was from St. Clare’s Close to the green area off Woodhaven, Kilrush Road, where we honoured The Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart. The congregation was founded in Australia in 1866 by St. Mary McKillop and Fr. Julian Tenison Woods. Mary was a Scotswoman who became Australia’s first canonised saint in October 2010. Mary McKillop visited Ireland in 1874 seeking the support of Irish girls for her mission of education in Australia and New Zealand. In October 1875 fifteen young women gathered in the Carmelite chapel in Ranelagh, Dublin, where, in the presence of their parents and families, they took part in a ceremony of dedication after which they left for the long voyage to Australia, never to return. Over the ensuing years over 700 women, of whom 84 were Clare women, followed in the footsteps of those pioneers, to help nourish the flame of faith in that far distant land. In 1996 the Irish-born Sisters of St. Joseph were given the option of returning to their homeland, bringing with them their missionary experience. Forty one sisters now live and minister in Ireland, three of them in the parish of Ennis: Srs. Anne Boland, Margaret Hanrahan and Betty Curtin; the recent unexpected death of the late Sr. Eileen O’Sullivan was a great shock to parishioners. The Sisters of St. Joseph have made a significant contribution to the pastoral and catechetical life of the people of the parish, particularly for those from other countries who have enriched our community and church.

Here too we honoured the La Sainte Union Sisters who were founded in Northern France in the 1840s and from there spread to England, Ireland – their first house was in Banagher, Co. Offaly – to the Americas and more recently to Tanzania, Cameroon and Haiti. In 2002 two sisters brought their own unique ministries to Ennis and live in Tobartaoscain: Dympna Bonfil is a gifted artist and works as an art therapist with the Mental Health Services, while Rita Gilroy is a volunteer with the Clare Intercultural Network and also facilitates group therapy. Their presence brought a new and welcome dimension to the ministry of religious in the parish.

Next we paused at the gateway to Cahercalla Community Hospital where Fr. Peadar O’Loughlin traced the history of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, or the ‘Columban’s’ as the Society is popularly known. Fr. Peadar is himself one of three Columban’s now living and ministering in retirement in his native Ennis. Co. Clare has a particular link with the founding days of the Columban’s. The Society was first known as the Maynooth Mission to China and came about through the inspiration of Fr. Edward Galvin of the Diocese of Cork who had an interest in evangelisation in China; while serving temporarily in Brooklyn, New York, he met a Canadian priest working in China and got permission to return there with him in 1912. Four years later, even more fired with zeal for a mission to China, he came back to Ireland and found a like-minded companion in Fr. John Blowick of the staff of Maynooth Seminary. Together they set up the society, naming it after St. Columban, the 1,400th anniversary of whose death is celebrated this year. Formal approval from Rome was given in 1918 and a house, along with one thousand acres of forested land on the banks of the Shannon at Cahercon, Kildysart, Co. Clare, was purchased for £14,000.00 by the fledgling Society, with the blessing of Bishop Fogarty of Killaloe. The property had been part of the Vandeleur Estate and became the first Columban Seminary when eleven students and nine diocesan priests moved in. In 1922, an auspicious year in Irish history, six priests were ordained in Cahercon and all embarked on the mission to China. By 1926 the Cahercon Seminary was too small and moved to Shrule, Co. Galway. The building and properties were handed over to the newly formed Missionary Sisters of St. Columban. Since the founding of the Society Fr. Blowick had spoken repeatedly of the urgent need for women collaborators in the mission to China; his appeal found an echo in the heart of Lady Frances Moloney an English-born widow who shared his vision for a mission to China. She was amongst the first group of postulants to take up residence in Cahercon, and became Mother Mary Patrick who spent ten years in China before being recalled to lead the young congregation. She remained in Cahercon until her death in 1959 by which time the Columban Sisters had moved their headquarters to Magheramore, Co. Wicklow. The new congregation was formally recognised by the Holy See in 1947.

Feeling a bit foot-sore and tired, but with the end in sight, we sang Spirit of the Living God and prayed to St. Columban for help and protection for the missionaries of to-day as we made our way up the tree-lined avenue to the welcome seats and the old familiar smell of burning incense in the chapel at Cahercalla Community Hospital, originally established and run by the St. John of God Sisters. Here Sr. Carmel Keogh, the only remaining John of God Sister in the parish, had the last word! In 1950 the St. John of God Sisters were invited by Bishop Fogarty to open a nursing home in Ennis. O’Gorman House was acquired from the St. Flannan’s Trust through the then president of St. Flannan’s College, Canon Maxwell. The house was converted and opened as St. John of God Nursing Home in 1953. An extension was added in 1960 and the Chapel officially blessed and opened in 1968. A new convent was completed in 1979. A six-bed hospice was added in 1990 and since then hospice services have been expanded.

By the mid 1980s the John of God Sisters realised they would not be in a position to indefinitely continue to offer the level of service required in Cahercalla and they began a lengthy process of discernment and negotiation as to its future, in order to retain it as an ongoing healthcare facility for the area. The eventual outcome was that the hospital was acquired by the people of Co. Clare as a Community Hospital and placed in their trusteeship. A smooth transition to new ownership was achieved in 1996. Patients were undisturbed and staff contracts were honoured; a number of John of God Sisters continued to work there until 2007. A wonderful legacy of quality healthcare was passed on. In our final prayer we asked that ‘our caring and compassion bring the face of Christ to the people of the world’. The singing of the Tantum Ergo, the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the incense… the wonderful cup of tea and our pilgrimage had ended.

We had walked the walk, met friendly, supportive people, listened to fascinating pieces of history at our various ‘stations’. Sincere thanks to Fr. Tom Hogan, P.P. and to the organising committee who made it all possible and to those who took part. At each station a small, wooden cross was presented by Fr. Tom to the person who had spoken on behalf of a congregation; each cross had its own unique image colourfully painted on it by local artist Harry Guinnane.

Cross representing family presented to the Sisters of Mercy

Reflecting on this Parish ‘Camino’ I am reminded of Pope Francis’ Letter to all Consecrated People as he announced this Year of Consecrated Life. He set out three aims for the year: to look to the past with gratitude; to live the present with passion; to embrace the future with hope. In our walking and praying we had indeed looked to the past with gratitude. We had recognised in the origins of each congregation the hand of God who had called the founders to follow Christ more closely and to respond creatively to the needs of the Church. For every founder the Gospel was the absolute rule. To live the present with passion I must take to heart the words of St. John Paul II when he said: ‘The same generosity and self-sacrifice which guided your founders must now inspire you’. The difficulties and challenges that face us as people of consecrated life to-day are many: aging, declining numbers, the global economic crisis, globalisation, threat to the environment, the shocking displacement of peoples, isolation, social irrelevance… In the midst of all the uncertainties I am called to practise the virtue of Hope, fruit of my faith in the God who tells us: ‘Be not afraid…for I am with you’. (Jer. 1:8) Let us ‘radiate the joy of living the Gospel and following Christ to the full’! (Pope Francis: Letter to all Consecrated People)

Canice Hanrahan rsm.