tet1837- 1870

he Presentation Sisters(') religious congregations comprised one of arrived in in 1837, the strongest religious movements in in response to a request for nineteenth century Catholic Eur0pe.o The their educational services. pioneer of this movement in Ireland was In so doing they were not concerns of Victorians elsewhere. Honora (Nano) Nagle, who founded the only responding to an immediate need for Propriety, gentility, conformity with Presentation order in the 1770s, which schools in the city but also partaking of appropriate social mores - these were the had education as its major area of work. wider social trends and currents. The kind of social and cultural values which Nagle was a woman who had spent a coming of the sisters to Limerick was part became increasingly important and the brief time in a convent in France before of the spread of Catholic institutions in educational system proved a perfect returning to Ireland at the end of the Ireland in the early nineteenth century. means of inculcating these. 1740s. She came back because she felt They also participated in the creation of a The state was not the only agency that life in an enclosed order was not widespread system of elementary educ- interested in the education of the Irish compatible with her sense of vocation and ation that had social as well as intellectual masses, of course: the that she "should run a great risk of implications. They contributed to the had a great involvement in this area. From salvation if [she] did not follow the elaboration of appropriate roles for women 1780 to 1845 it moved from being a inspiration [to return]".(*) For the next in nineteenth century Ireland, chiefly by technically illegal organisation to being an twenty years or so she engaged in means of the intellectual and vocational accepted part of the structures of power philanthropic work among the poor of training provided in their schools for and influence within Irish society.c5)The Cork city, concentrating especially on young female children. This article will churches, convents and schools appearing educating poorer Catholic children in explore how both the Presentation nuns on the Irish landscape were adequate defiance of the Penal Laws. Wishing to and the myriad of young girls they taught testimony to this. As one of its priorities, give some continuity to her work, in Limerick participated in, and benefited the church set about providing a Catholic particularly after her death, Nagle from, these developments. education for its members and schools financed the move to Ireland of a group of It was a widely held belief in the early were vital to this effort, in particular the Ursuline nuns - the first female order nineteenth century that one of the main convent and monastery schools of the to come to the country since the factors that caused the social distress so socially active nuns and brothers who now Reformation. However, the were evident in the country was the lack of became so important in the life of the a traditional cloistered order, so their educational provision for the Irish masses: Catholic church. Previously, education work among the poor proved to be it was felt that their ignorance not only for poorer Catholics had been very disappointingly limited. She therefore hindered practical schemes for the problematic. It was available in the popular resolved to found a new style organisation improvement of their material conditions Catholic pay schools but only for those that would be purposely built for the type but also prevented them from developing children whose parents could afford the of work she felt most important. Thus habits of industry and systematic thinking. minimal fee involved. The Protestant Nagle and three other women formed the It was also assumed that a properly educational institutions, sponsored "Society of the Charitable Instruction of conducted system of elementary educa- directly or indirectly by the State, did offer the Sacred Heart" whose aim was tion would lead to an increased awareness educational facilities to the very poor, but charitable work among the poor. By the of the benefits of 'The Constitution' and the majority of Catholic parents were time of Nagle's death in 1784, this new thus aid the effort at 'civilising' the Irish.(2) unwilling to send their children to these congregation had still not received final Thus an elementary school system in schools because of their proselytising papal approval, and in order to do so had Ireland was seen as a means of cultivating reputation. Thus the Catholic church itself to adopt perpetual solemn vows and full attitudes of political loyalty as well as had to provide educational facilities for enclosure in 1805. Henceforth the goal of promoting cultural assimilation.@)As the its poorer members. Individuals (both the congregation was restricted to century progressed an additional social clerical and lay) established and ran education alone, and that within the aim was given even greater prominence, schools for the poor but, as mentioned convent walls. By this stage, the namely the encouragement of respect- above, by far the most numerous and organisation had also changed its name at ability and decorum in the general effective of the church-sponsored schools the request of the remaining sisters, and population. This was particularly impor- were those run by the new Irish orders of was now known as the 'Institute of the tant after the famine because as well as nuns and brothers from the end of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary'. undergoing great changes in the eighteenth century onwards. These orders By the time the Presentation Sisters came aftermath of that catastrophe, Irish society became a major means of dissemination of to Limerick they were the most also developed many of the traits of the church influence, first among the urban widespread of all the female religious, 'mid-Victorian'c4) period. From the 1850s poor (in particular in areas like Limerick) their convents comprising 55 per cent of onwards much of the Irish population and later all over the country.(6) the entire number of religious houses in shared many of the preoccupations and The emergence and growth of female Ireland." and monasteries whose members were socially active. In Limerick, although the Christian Brothers had been here since 1816, the first socially active female order to arrive and to stay was the Presentation order in 1837. In terms of convent foundation, this was rather late in the century for the first permanent foundation in one of the major urban areas in Ireland. By that year there were thirty-thyee Presentation convents in all - most of therp in towns considerably smaller th% Limerick. It was not the first attempt at a foundation however. As early as 1810, the Presentation community in sent an unspecified number of sisters to Limerick but they only stayed two months in the city, as they encountered too many difficulties. Unfortunately, the records available do not tell us the nature of these difficulties. Bishop Young of Limerick was very frustrated by this failure: in a letter to his fellow bishop of Cork he hoped that the disappointment would only be temporary.(13)He did not allow his desire for education for the Catholic poor of the city to be long denied however, for in 1812 he managed to persuade three to come to Limerick and open a school. This foundation struggled along until 1831, at which point financial difficulties became insurmountable.(14)In May, 1833, four nuns from the Present- ation community in Galway took over the running of the school for poor female children that had been established by the Poor Clare nuns in St Mary's Parish. These nuns were recalled in April, 1836, as they had not attracted any recruits and the location of the convent had proved unhealthy. Interestingly enough, Samuel Lewis wrote that the school they subsequently abandoned was put into the national school system and run by two of the sisters of St Clare, who had obviously remained behind after the withdrawal of , founder of the Presentation Sisters. their community.(15) This whole series of events tells us Although their motivation was purely those who married and remained faithful much about the vagaries of convent religious, by their involvement in the and subordinate within the marriage foundation at that time but also gives us an educational system, sisters such as the relationship, who accepted that their insight into the haphazard but nonetheless Presentations also contributed to the natural sphere was the domestic one and successful attempt at providing education socialisation of their charges into the who remained sexually continent until for the poor female children of Limerick. dominant social and cultural values of the marriage.(ll) By transmitting these values From what evidence is available, it appears time. As they were especially committed the educational project of the Presentation that the lack of financial support from the to the education of young female children, nuns in Limerick had effects that went far citizens of Limerick coupled with the the Presentation nuns participated in the beyond the alleviation of educational need. orders' inability to support the various transmission of the type of intellectual and attempts were the crucial factors in the vocational training considered appropriate failure of these foundations. This financial for girls and young women at that time. insecurity would have had a knock-on Therefore they were involved in the trans- The new Catholic institutions such as the effect, for a house in a financially mission of gendered social roles. In this Presentation convents were situated, on precarious position would not attract local they represented something of a paradox, the whole, in the cities and provincial recruits which in turn would further for here were all-female institutions, towns. There is a direct link between undermine its viability. This is emphasised governed on a day-to-day basis by women urbanisation and the appearance of by the fact that financial security proved to who socialised girls into domestic and convents, for in the larger urban areas be the key to the first successful dependent roles.(lO) However, given their there existed a concentration of foundation in Limerick in the pre-famine role within the Catholic church which was prosperous Catholics (both business and period. itself male dominated, contemporaries saw professional people) who had enough This foundation came about as a result no contradiction in the nuns' transmission money to found and maintain convents of an invitation issued to the sisters in the of values that they themselves seemed to and were willing to do so. Some of these south Presentation Convent, Cork City, by transgress. From the 1850s onwards, and Catholics gave a great deal of their wealth Catherine Maria King. King had been especially by the last quarter of the nine- towards religious and philanthropic engaged in running a school for poor teenth century, it was generally accepted work.(12)The agents of this work were the children in St Michael's parish, in in Ireland that respectable women were nuns and brothers of the various convents conjunction with her friend and adviser, Fr Hogan PP. She had an interesting 340 girls daily receive the blessings of The work for these poor female background for she had been born in 1785 gratuitous instruction; which includes, children continued apace. Besides in of wealthy Protestant not only a religious and moral providing education and clothing for the parents. On the death of her father, she education, but also reading, writing, very destitute, by 1840 it was customary to came to live in Limerick with Captain and arithmetic, and every sort of useh1 work. give breqkfasts to thirty poor girls. The Mrs Moore of Patrick Street as she was a The children are supplied with all of the community also managed to send three grandniece of the latter. Mrs Moore was a materials necessary for the different sisters to establish a foundation in Catholic who was instrumental in King's branches of Education, and the more Castleisland, Co. Kerry in 1846, one of the subsequent conversion to that religion. In destitute among them, with such clothing three being the original superior and 1826, she entered the monastic Convent as the&nds of the convent can afford. Castleisland woman, M. Joseph Harnytt. of the Visitation of Shepton Mallet, However as Hutch, an early chronicler of Somerset. She became a novice in The emphasis on the moral education of the Presentation order, wrote (quotinif December of that year (at the age of 41) the young girls as well as the material almost verbatim from the contemporary but left either in 1827 or 1828. When King provision for the students is worth noting. annals) : returned to Limerick, she began her work Both the Presentation community and in St Michael's female parochial school its work continued to expand over the next The time chosen for their departure was but after some years both she and Fr few years, so much so that a Presentation the commencement of a period of great Hogan became very anxious to place this nun in could write in early 1839 trials and additional labours for the initiative on a permanent footing - hence that "the success of the dear sisters in nuns in Limerick, who, like their sisters the already mentioned invitation. Fr Limerick is very gratifying, so many elsewhere, were forced to exhaust their Hogan gave a house adjoining St having failed there, although their names ingenuity in devising means to supply Michael's presbytery, built at a cost of are unknownn.(lQNumbers in the school with food the unfortunate children whom £3,000, and schools costing £1,300 were continued to rise and several young they saw daily furnishing at their door also built at his expense. The house, women joined the sisters in their work. during the winter of 1846-47. During schools, and the ground they stood on According to the Catholic Directory of this period of sore distress the good nuns were transferred to King's ownership 1840, there were twelve sisters in the were enabled to supply food every day to while the negotiations with the South community in that year. The community 150 poor children, and also to clothe Presentation Convent were being thrived so much that after four and a half very many of them, through the charity completed. In addition, on the death of her years two of the founding sisters (the of some generous persons ...(l8) uncle and aunt, King became sole heir to exception being Harnett) returned to the their estate and was thus in a position to South Presentation Convent. King, who This work was only possible because of ensure the financial viability of the had been living in the convent (as was her the generosity of the sisters' wealthy initiative. With all these arrangements in prerogative as founder), joined in 1840 and fellow-Catholics who contributed both to place, the sisters from South Presentation subsequently became superior in 1848. the famine relief and to the educational Convent came to Limerick. The convent and its doings very quickly endeavour. However, the sisters were On 8 May, 1837, M. Joseph Harnett, M. became part of the fabric of Catholic life in finding it increasingly difficult to maintain Stanislaus Drinan and M. Francis Limerick. Reports on the occasions of their schools in these circumstances, for Cantillan arrived in Limerick. The first receptions and professions featured in 1848 the schools were put into the named was the superior and had an frequently in local newspapers, and in national education system. That step was interesting background in terms of the these the "highly respectable and very obviously not taken lightly as the Limerick foundation. Both she and her crowded [congregations]" and "exquisite Presentation approach to education and sister, who were natives of Castleisland, ... and impressive ceremonies" were that of the National Board were not Co. Kerry, had joined the South Presen- described.('" Thus within a short period of exactly compatible. tation community specifically for the time, the effects of the community were Limerick mission in the early 1820s. noticeable. The young female poor of Clearly, a foundation was contemplated at Limerick were obviously benefiting that time although it never materialised. directly by its provision of education. The The Presentation Sisters in Limerick Unfortunately, the second sister died in wealthy supported its endeavours by conducted an educational system whose 1833 of tuberculosis and it was left to financial aid, praised its work, attended its philosophy was abundantly clear. The Joseph Harnett to fulfil their ambition, ceremonies and sometimes gave their Presentation Constitution stated that along with her two companions. The daughters to join more fully in this arrival of the three nuns was marked by a Catholic philanthropy. A vocation to the The Sisters must ... have in view what is short paragraph two days later in the local Presentation Convent came to be regarded peculiarly characteristic of this Institute, establishment newspaper, the Limerick with a great deal of approbation by that is, a most serious application to the Chronicle: contemporaries, as the writer of the Instruction of poor female children in following piece, musing on the reception the principles of Religion and Christian On Saturday evening three ladies fiom of a Miss Bridgei Quin in the Limerick Piety. (l9) the South Presentation Convent, Cork, Reporter on 6 October, 1840, indicates: accompanied by Dr Murphy, Roman The nuns wished to produce young Catholic Bishop of that diocese, arrived How delightful must be the feelings of Catholics, knowledgeable about their here, for the purpose of founding a Mr. Quin, this night, to reflect that he faith, effectively attached to it, and branch of their order, for the instruction has located his daughter where the committed to the Christian transformation of poor children. There is a handsome dangers and vicissitudes of life have no of the world. For young women, it was house and spacious schoolroom erected access, and in the society of ladies whose generally accepted that their most for that pu@ose in Sexton-St. which later whole lives are devoted, as her own will important contribution to this trans- will contain 500 children. be, to piety and the cultivation of formation would occur within the The schools were opened on 29 May and morality and religion in the minds of the domestic sphere, but this wish was the first pupils admitted were the one poor, female children of our city. coupled with a desire to provide a sound hundred and fifty poor girls whom King vocational and academic training for the had been teaching. By the end of the year, This represented a very satisfactory nuns' young female charges. The sisters the number in the school had increased to situation in this contemporary's view: the were well aware of the poverty of their some 340 pupils, according to the Limerick haven of the convent would provide the pupils and of the need to equip them, in so Chronicle of 29 November. It further environment from which this young lady far as they could, with the skills that would detailed what the sisters had achieved could inculcate appropriate religious and enable them to earn a livelihood. They over the previous five months: social mores in less fortunate females. also endeavoured to provide them with a Part of the Presentation Convent and grounds. rudimentary literary education, that is presumes! This coincided perfectly with Commandments - how they are to instruction in the '3 Rs'. An appeal for the broader social project of that period examine their consciences every night, financial aid for the nuns in the Limerick for it seems that by "impressing on [the and to honour and respect their Parents. Reporter on 20 November, 1840, stated young] a horror for vice, and the love of They shall teach them how to prepare for that virtue, and by instructing them in the Confession, and to confess their sins with duties of religionn(211 the nuns would help all sincerity and contrition: They shall be 456 poor female children are daily achieve the great end of making the poor ever attentive to dispose them for the instructed in the principles of religion "worthy members of the great family of Sacrament of Confirmation, and for and morality - they are also taught those mankind".@" their First Communion.(23) branches of education and industry Though contemporaries greeted such suited to their conditions in life and civilising effects of the sisters' education The sisters were further admonished that likely to prove so beneficial to themselves with much approbation, it must always be it was a duty incumbent upon them to and the society of which they will form so borne in mind that religious conviction teach the catechism daily to the children, considerable a portion. was the nuns' motivating force. As which they were to "explain to them religious, their first duty was the briefly and simply, adapting their language Limerick society was acutely aware of the sanctification of their own souls. As to the [children's] age and benefits accruing from the education of its members of the Presentation order the This suggests that the sisters were aware poorer members: instruction of poor female children in the that the pace of each child's development principles of religion and Christian piety varied and so endeavoured to adapt their The progress of society has brought with was the chief means to that end. Though teaching method to the needs of individual it no other influence so intimately the children were to be instructed in pupils. connected with the purity and integrity secular subjects, religious instruction and However, although the sisters had of public morals, as the early training of guidance formed the pivot around which some enlightened ideas such as the female mind to purity and to virtue, school life revolved: awareness of individual learning needs, especially amongst those who, from their their teaching methods were very much condition in life, are destined to be the [The sisters/ shall teach the children to products of their period. The teachers wives and mothers ofpeople ...(20) offer themselves up to God from the first were to be careful "not to allow [the use of Reason and when they awake in children] to be over curious in their proclaimed a contemporary newspaper the morning, to raise their hearts to him; questions, but to constantly exhort them editorial, urging support for the Limerick adore his Sovereign Majesty, return to captivate their understanding in Presentation schools. Female respon- thanks to him for all his favours, and obedience to faith".(z51 The sisters can sibility for the handing on of morality, not arm themselves with the sign of the hardly be faulted for an uncreative only to other females but to males as well, Cross. They shall instruct them how to approach to education however, when it is clearly seen by the suggestion that their offer all their thoughts, words and was the norm at the time. They used the most important role was as the "wives and actions to God's glory, implore his grace educational systems and ideas then in mothers of people" - male people, one to know and love him, and to &&l his vogue. Evidently Presentation Sisters were The impressive Presentation parlour, with its ornamental fireplace and fine furniture. influenced by the Lancastrian system with The state supported primary school loyalty to [the] Sovereign, ... [possessing] its use of monitors and strong emphasis system under the control of a state board the art of communicating knowledge, but on rote learning. They also borrowed of commissioners had as its primary aim ... capable of moulding the mind of extensively from the Ursuline tradition of the dissemination of literacy and youth'.@g)Although these characteristics education. Features such as the superior's numeracy in the general population of enabled a teacher to fulfil admirably the final responsibility for the school with Ireland.@" This was very different from intellectual and social functions of the various duties delegated to individual the teaching of the principles of religion educational system, they fell far short of sisters, are adequate testimony to this."" and Christian piety that was the avowed the fervour and zeal required of a For all that, the Presentation Sisters aim of the Presentation nuns' educational Presentation nun. brought their own special charism or endeavour. In fact, the national school Despite the tensions between the two mission to bear on the task of educating system was to be strictly non-denomin- philosophies, many convent schools were the poor in Limerick, in line with the ational by drawing a distinction between forced to enter the national school system, particular characteristic of the Institute, secular and religious subjects, and to this as was the establishment in Sexton Street. that is, the instruction of poor female end "opportunities [were] to be afforded Hutch, writing in the 1870s, made the children. to the children of each school for reason abundantly clear: However, the way in which the receiving such religious instruction as Presentation ethos of education developed their parents or guardians [approved] of'. Up to the year 1848, the Sexton Street was shaped not only by the Presentation Such instruction could "be given during Presentation schools received no state nuns themselves but also by the interests the fixed school day or otherwise".(28) aid whatsoever; but the great dificulty of of the secular state in which they lived. Public prayer and all other religious obtaining suficientjknds for the eficient The state controlled national system of exercises were subject to the same working of such a large establishment at elementary education in Ireland had control. The board also refused to allow that period of almost unprecedented been established in 1831. The schools, any religious emblems to be displayed in Poverty and depression in Ireland, curricula, teaching systems and adminis- the classrooms. All of this was anathema induced the nuns to accept the govern- trative machinery put in place then to a Presentation sister: for her there ment grant and place their schools in became the foundation of popular could be no divorce between religious and connection with the Board of National education in Ireland for the remainder of secular education. Moreover when the Education.(30) the nineteenth century. Each order or qualities required of a teacher in the convent had to decide whether or not to national school system are examined, The nuns in Limerick in 1848, forced by have their schools participate in the another difference between its philosophy financial need to accept association with system for although the financial gains and that of the Presentation nuns is the board for the sake of the financial were considerable, it had a philosophy evident. The Commissioners of National benefits, were now obliged to work as best very different to that of any Catholic Education desired teachers to be persons they could within its restrictions. teaching congregation, particularly that of of "Christian sentiment, of calm temper, However acceptance into the system the Presentation order which has just and discretion ... imbued with a spirit of was not automatic; application had to be been examined. peace, of obedience to the law, and of made and the schools examined by a O'Connell Street at the turn of the century. board inspector. These reports provide religiously-educated young Irishwomen, much information on the Sexton Street on their own domestic circle and on schools prior to their absorption into the So the educational endeavour pioneered society at large, not in Ireland alone, but national system. The first point to be noted by Catherine Maria King, with the support in all those vast countries to which the with respect to entry is that the sisters of Fr Hogan, which was then transferred Irish emigrate?(32) proceeded very cautiously. They placed to the Presentation Sisters, eventually part of their school in association with the became part of the official state system. The common understanding of the use to board in 1848, another part in 1849 and the How did the nuns and their pupils fare in which female education was to be put is final part in 1850. Doubtless they were that system? To answer this, it is useful to very evident in Hutch's sentiments. Their testing the system and judging how move forward in time some thirty years, impact on their male offspring and on their compatible it was with their own for a number of reasons. The expansion of domestic circle is to the fore: it is the philosophy of education. Many interesting the schools in 1865 and the death of the moral and religious legacy of the Sexton facts emerge from the reports, for founder, Catherine Maria King, in 1866, Street education that will last, literally to example the number of students present marked the end of an era in the history of the ends of the earth. at the times of inspections was 498 pupils the Presentation Convent and schools in In assessing their legacy in more and the premises were in a good state of Limerick. The girls attending the schools prosaic terms, it must be noted that the repair. It also appears that E75 a year was in the 1860s were possibly the daughters Presentation school would have helped raised for the school by means of a charity of the original Sexton Street pupils, so it is reduce the level of illiteracy in Limerick sermon (a very popular method of fund- an opportune point at which to analyse the City. Thousands of young girls had passed raising at that time). The school was efficacy of the Presentation Sisters' through the schools from 1837 onwards. furnished with all teaching requirements educational endeavours. Moreover, the From the various sources available, the according to the inspector and the national holding of two government inquiries into present author makes the conservative book scheme had been used for the aspects of education between 1864 and estimate that, between 1837 and 1870, previous three years: Books I, 11, I11 and 1870 (the former ~ommentingin detail on somewhere in the region of 16,000 girls IV were in use. The teachers were the the Sexton Street establishment) received education in Sexton Street. "ladies of the community", Mrs [sic] King generated much useful information and All of these would have been given a being the superior by this time. Although commentary. rudimentary literary education (some with the inspectors thought their literary For some, such as W. Hutch, the more success than others, of course). acquirements, character and method of Sexton Street schools had achieved Though not the only educational agency conducting the school were good, the nothing but good since its foundation: working in the city during those decades, nuns had received no instruction in the art the Presentation convent would have been of teaching - though "Mrs King once The Presentation nuns have been now among those helping to reduce the overall visited the Model School in Dublin". nearly forty years established in the city illiteracy figures. According to the Naturally, the school was gratuitous, of the 'Violated Treaty: and it would censuses held in 1841 and 1861, the scholars being clothed and fed as well as indeed be dificult to estimate properly percentage of the population of Limerick educated. Overall, the inspector concluded the immense good which they have City aged five years and upwards who in 1848 that having "examined two classes achieved within that period. The were illiterate fell from 42% in the former I found the pupils good readers and matrons of the Limerick of today were year to 33% in the latter. Mere figures remarkably intelligent. They performed their pupils forty years ago, and their alone do not tell the whole story, of the usual calculations with care and pupils of today will be the mothers of the course. Though doubtless helping in the exactness and altogether the school next generation of Limerick men. And dissemination of basic numeracy and appeared zealously and efficiently who shall venture to measure the literacy among the poor of Limerick, some conducted."(31) powe&l influence of these thousands of government reports were sharply critical of the standard of education reached in the Sexton Street school. Moreover they were not slow to point out what they saw as the cause of the poor standards. Head Inspector Sheridan, for instance, whose district encompassed Limerick City, firmly believed that the root of the problem lay in the fact that the nuns received no technical training as teachers. Writing in 1860, he deplored their "limited acquaintance with those improved methods of teaching and school organis- ation which have received the sanction of experiencem.(33)The commissioners of National Education accepted the situation where nuns were not classified or required to submit to an examination as they took it for granted "that they [were] sufficiently well-educated to discharge the duties of National teachers effi~iently".(~4) Funding was actually paid to the school as a capitation allowance, the amount dependant on the average daily attendance at the school. This differed from the system of examination and classification of the ordinary national school teachers: they were paid a given salary if they reached a certain standard in the state examination. Such a variation in the system of payment of salary was bound to create differences in the approach to teaching of the two groups. The ordinary national teachers had a far greater incentive to reach the standards set down by the National Board of Education and, in fact, did far better financially than the nuns in the end. If they had agreed to examination and classification, the nuns would have received far more than they did by way of capitation. However, they clearly considered it far more important to retain some measure of independence within the state's educational bureaucracy. However Sheridan's report was not totally damning of the nuns' work in the classroom. Writing generally of the convent schools in his district, he reported that

... it is undeniable that the majority of the nuns ... are infinitely better educated than the teachers of ordinary National schools, while it is equally true that they bring to the discharge of their duties a disinterestedness and devotedness to which even the most zealous of the lay teachers can have no claim. It is also undeniable that their schools do an incalculable amount of good. Their pupils receive a moral and religious training of the highest order, they are educated to habits of truth-telling, Part of the parlour of the Presentation Convent, Sexton Street, modesty, order and cleanliness ...(35) showing the ceiling's decorative plasterwork.

So, according to Sheridan, the fact of not previous report come into sharper focus. of education, in his opinion, as "the being interested in the salary scale O'Callaghan castigated the standard of information imparted [was] very defective, applicable to ordinary national schools teaching of the nuns. Though the literary except in reading and writing". So, while resulted in the qualities of disinterest and acquirements of the nuns were quite the higher literary accomplishments of the devotion in the discharge of their duties so satisfactory, "their method of teaching pupils did not meet with O'Callaghan's evident in the nuns. These qualities no [was] defective and their organising skill approval, at least the basics of reading and doubt sprang from their sense of vocation. [was] very imperfect". Judging by results writing were being dealt with adequately. When we consider District Inspector obtained, the efficiency of instruction was The same ambivalence was evident in Andrew O'Callaghan's report of 1864 "very unsatisfactory", he held - except in O'Callaghan's comments on the teaching which dealt specifically with Sexton Street reading and writing. Few left school of younger pupils. Although he argued school, the problems mentioned in the having obtained a satisfactory degree that the intellectual training of the infants St. Saviour's Church, Glentworth Street. failed "to produce the results which damning assessment if the actual aims of and localities hampered the sisters' work, [were] expected to be developed in a the congregation are borne in mind. in that they were forced to wait for the skilfully conducted infant school", "the O'Callaghan's answer to the question as to poor to come to them. But come they did, infant pupils [were] cared for with loving the effect of the school in drawing out as is evidenced from O'Callaghan's s0licitude".(3~)It was obvious, even to from their homes and bringing under the passing comment about the children fed O'Callaghan, that he and the sisters were influence of instruction those children of daily. It is obvious also from his remarks viewing their eflicacy from very different the more destitute classes who would that the school catered to a very wide angles: otherwise probably attend no school, is social spectrum. A large proportion of the therefore worth quoting in full: pupils, according to him, were the Notwithstanding that the teachers of this children of tradespeople and clerks; school are undoubtedly influenced by This school has had little or no effect in however it is noteworthy that the poor high and holy motives to extend the this way. This may be accounted for, in continued to attend, although not in the blessings of a sound, religious, moral my opinion, by the fact that the nuns of majority. The Presentation nuns were and secular education, in the locality in the Presentation Order are forbidden, by anxious to provide education for all who which they teach, I am obliged to assent, a 'vow of enclosure', to go outside the needed it at the lower end of the social that their eforts have fallen very far bounds of their convent. They have, scale, whether that be for the destitute, short of the results to be desired, as far as therefore, no external intercourse with working classes or lower middle classes. secular instruction is concerned ...(37) people. On examining the Register, So while some credence may be given under the head of "Occupation of to the complaints of O'Callaghan in 1864, It must be borne in mind, however, that Parents" I observed that a very large the situation was not as bad as he painted O'Callaghan, as a member of the proportion of the parents were engaged it. Other contemporaries put a less Established Church, would have had in some trade, or as clerks, pensioners negative interpretation on matters than he. very little sympathy with conventual etc. There is a .distribution of bread for While taking cognisance of the type of institutions. Notwithstanding this, it is luncheon every day to about fifty defects commented on by O'Callaghan, probably true to say that the standard of children, and this number may be fixed the Royal Commission of Inquiry into purely secular education was lower in the on as representing the more destitute, Primary Education in Ireland (Powis Sexton Street school (as in many convent and about thirty but for this dole might Commission) of 1870, for instance, was schools) than in many ordinary national not be sent to school at a11.(39) generally approving of convent schools: schools. Fervour and zeal by themselves were not sufficient to compensate for the It is ironic to note that Nano Nagle, The good qualities of convent schools are technical training as teachers that the founder of the Presentation order, evidently due to the religious and moral Presentation nuns' lay colleagues would have had great sympathy with influence of the nuns. That there should received. O'Callaghan's view that the rule of be some deficiency in secular instruction However, he made a further charge in enclosure hindered the efficacy of the is not at all surprising. It is most his report that is far more interesting in sisters' work. She had never wanted unreasonable to conclude that a person terms of our attempt to assess the enclosure and had founded her order who has a religious vocation will be Presentation sisters' efficacy in their when the Ursulines had proved a necessarilyfitted to teach secular subjects mission to teach the poor. He asserted disappointment in that area. It was only ... Piety and devotion are admirable that the nuns had "not succeeded in any after her death that papal enclosure had qualifications for guiding the minds of marked manner, in rescuing from total been adopted by the congregation. There young people in the highest aspect of ignorance the children belonging to the can be no doubt that an inability to education, but do not make up for the more destitute classes".(3~This is a very minister to the poor in their own homes want of professional training, and of technical instruction in the art of Moreover this was not the only type of evidently very healthy. Unfortunately, the teaching. (40) vocational preparation conducted in the records do not make it clear whether the school for, as mentioned above, the future nuns were the paid or unpaid Thus the lack of formal teacher training Presentation used monitors in their monitors mentioned in the reports. What was a problem all convent schools schools who had to be trained and who is clear from our analysis of both the suffered - it was not just the Sexton Street received a salary for their work in most national system's philosophy and the school alone. Despite that lack, the cases. From the beginning of the 1850s nuns' educational ethos that the latter "highest aspect of education" was not the state was paying salaries to Sexton would not have been dismayed at the being neglected as the sisters had all the Street monitors. By then the school was above poor assessment of their proficiency qualities necessary to guide the young also receiving payments for the training of with regards to secular education. Theiy people in their charge, in their personal monitors.(44)That being said, there were priorities lay elsewhere, even more so in , development and on the road to social continuous complaints about the stand- respect to the training of monitors who; improvement, an aim much desired by the ards attained by the monitors in the would themselves become nuns. It must state. school. The general school registers also be noted that comments about the In providing this guidance the regularly made mention of the nuns' lack of training in the arts of Presentation Sisters acted in common with inadequacies of the training these young teaching were made in the context of the all other teaching sisters. Were they women received, for example: Catholic church's boycott of the state perceived by the state as making any February 21 1862 teacher-training system then in place, distinctive contribution? One of the No gratuity for training Mary Anne namely the model schools. That the assistant commissioners involved in the Boucher. Teachers' attention called to official inspectorate should constantly 1870 inquiry certainly thought so: bad writing and spelling, and unsatis- harp on about deficiencies in this regard is factory answering of the monitor. not surprising as it was very much a The teaching seems to me very good on No gratui(ytyfor K Slattery. political issue. the whole. In all the schools [the Special attention to be given to It must be further noted that Presentation sisters] did a great deal of instruction of monitors.(45) contemporaries held few such misgivings, the drudgery connected with the classes witness Hutch: ... Of one part of the education I can This made clear that the responsibility for hardly estimate the efect, namely, the training these 'student teachers' lay with ... one of the best tests of the value of the personal character and example of the the nuns and as far as the inspector was training given in the Sexton-street nuns on their pupils. But this should concerned, they had failed in their charge. Presentation Schools is the success which certainly be taken into account and my The 1864 report was also critical. attends their pupils in after life. Besides own feeling is that it would be hard to O'Callaghan held that the acquirements of very many who are comfortably and exaggerate its benefits to the children in the monitors were not satisfactory and respectably married, numbers of them later life. that the efficiency of their services as are at present filling offices as junior instructors was only tolerably fair. governnesses, teachers or assistants in Here is an impact that was far less tangible He further charged that the level of schools, telegraph and post ofice clerks (though not less real) than the standard of preparation they received from the nuns etc. They are to be met with in every formal, secular education achieved by the was totally inadequate: quarter of the globe and are found to children. Through the school, the give everywhere the most unqualified Presentation nuns attempted to share They receive every day, along with a satisfaction. (48) their particular Catholic vision of life and class of unpaid monitors, instruction for ' prepare their students for living. To this 2% hours in the subjects of their The priority that Hutch accords the end, it is interesting to note that the programme, but they have received little domestic role of women and by extension, standard of industrial instruction (which or no direction in the art of teaching, the value he placed on the appropriate after all was the most practical form of because this subject is but very training the students of Sexton Street education the sisters could have given to imperfectly understood by the teachers received for that role, accorded very well prepare their students for life after school) themselves.(46) with the dominant perception of the was extremely high in the Sexton Street 'respectable' woman. His praise is establishment. Even O'Callaghan, in an It must be borne in mind that the adequate testimony to the efficacy of the otherwise extremely critical report, was reservations expressed earlier vis-a-vis sisters' efforts in this respect. Although as forced to admit that the educational value OJCallaghan's attitude towards the nuns a priest of the Catholic church and a of the industrial instruction in the school are still applicable for it is again at the staunch admirer of Nagle and her was "superior" to that of ordinary girls' teaching skills of the sisters that he is followers, Hutch may be accused of a schools in Limerick city.(42) According to again directing his criticisms. If he were certain bias in favour of the Sexton Street the Powis Commission c. 55%of the pupils unhappy with their teaching of ordinary school, in fact, he was not alone in his were learning the various branches of pupils, he would hardly be satisfied at praise. O'Callaghan, who certainly could female industry in 1870 - a very creditable their instruction of monitors. His lack of not be accused of favouritism, acknow- figure if the younger pupils are excluded. sympathy with conventual schools is ledged that "the nuns have done a good This amounted to 340 girls engaged in further underlined when he wrote: service to the cause of national 'vocational' preparation. The gendered ed~cation".(~g)Chief Inspector Laurie in nature of the industrial instruction is With respect to the training of teachers, his report on the schools in Limerick City evident when the actual skills being the school trains 5 or 6 every year, who in 1870, is fulsome in his praise of the six acquired are noted, for instance all were are sent abroad to India and America, convent schools then existing: "The learning sewing and in addition 120 were and become nuns in convents belonging Roman Catholic communities have alone learning knitting. Netting, embroidery and to the Presentation Order. But I must redeemed the city ... from the reproach of cutting out only attracted 20, 30 and 24 say that these persons have received an being a hotbed of vice and ignorance"(5o) students respectively.(43)The versatility of imperfect training for the efficient and further the schools were "free from these skills is immediately evident: not performance of their duty, as far as the blemishes of the ordinary National only would they be indispensable for those regards the teaching of the secular School". He believed the schools to types of employments considered most branches of a school course.(47) be doing good work and found the appropriate for the female half of the "aggregate results of instruction" very population (such as domestic service), but It is interesting to note that the nuns much to his satisfaction. Of course they would prove invaluable in the future placed young women as monitors in their 'aggregate results' do not tell us of those domestic roles that were considered to be schools in order to prepare them for students who failed within the system, the lot of most young women. missionary work: recruitment was those whose educational standards fell G. OTuathaigh, Ireland Before the Famine 17981848 (Dublin, 1972) .98. J. Coolahan, Irish Education: Is Histoy and Structure (Dublin, 1981) p.4. R.V. Cornerford, 'Ireland 1850-70: Post- Famine and Mid-Victorian' in The New Histoy oflreland, Vol. V. p. 372. S.J. Connolly, Priests and People in Pre- Famine Ireland, 17801845 (Dublin, 19821, p.6. See A. Fahey, 'Nuns in the Catholic Chu~ch in Ireland in the Nineteenth Century' in M. Cullen (ed.) Girls don't do honours (Dub!?; 1987), pp. 7-30. Ibid, p.7. As quoted in, TJ. Walsh, Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters (Monasterevan, 19801, p. 345. C. Clear, Nuns in Ireland in the Nineteenth Century (Dublin, 1987), p. 52. C. Clear, 'The limits of female autonomy: nuns in nineteenth century Ireland' in M. Luddy and C. Murphy (eds.) Women Surviving (Dublin, 1990), p. 16. D. McLoughlin, 'Women and sexuality in nineteenth century Ireland', The Irish Journal of Psychology, 1994, 15, 2 & 3, p. 266. Tontine houses in Pery Square, built in 1840. P.J. Corish, The Irish Catholic Experience (Dublin, 1985), p. 153. below what was considered appropriate. M. Moloney, 'Limerick in Emancipation citizens expressed appreciation and days' in Presentation Convent, Limerick, Neither do these records tell us about approval for the benign effects which Centenary Book (Limerick, 1937). those students who did not benefit from accrued from the sisters' work. The state H. Concannon, The Poor Clares in Ireland the sisters' moral and religious training. educational system in which they operated (Dublin, 1929), p. 103. The surviving comment focuses on the was often critical of the standards attained S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of positive aspects of the nuns' work, in the in secular education in the school, Ireland (London, 1837), ii, p. 269. style of Laurie who noted that blaming in particular a lack of teacher- M. Francis Knowd in a letter to South Presentation Convent, Cork as quoted in R. training for deficiencies in this regard. Considine, Listening Journey, (Victoria, The points of superiority - which is, after However, the quality of care of their Australia, 1983), p. 283. all, a proof of culture on the part of the students, the calibre of the basic literary Limerick Reporter, 6 October, 1840. managing staff - are: manners and education provided and the superiority of W. Hutch, Nano Nagle: her life, her labours discipline, organisation, cleanliness, the industrial instruction given in the and theirbits (Dublin, 1875),p. 349. ventilation, sprightliness and cheer- school were all singled out for praise by Rules and Constitutions of the Institute of the Religious Sisterhood of the Presentation of Jklnes~.(~l) the official inspectorate and given the the Ever Blessed Virgin- Mary. (Dublin.. nuns' priorities, this must count for much. 1809), p. 11. These are characteristics wholly Moreover all agreed that in the trans- Limerick Reborter.-. 4 December. 1840. appropriate to a citizen of the United mission of the "highest aspect of Presentation Constitutions, p. 11. Kingdom at that time, particularly if that education' the Presentation nuns had no Limerick Reporter, 6 July, 1841. citizen were female. Clearly the 'culture' rival, their religious and moral teaching Presentation Constitutions, p. 12. was without parallel. Ibid., p. 11. which was judged to be intrinsic to the Ibid. Presentation nuns was being passed on to The educational endeavours of the Considine, Listening Journey, p. 220. their pupils in the form of the qualities nuns were bearing fruit for the state, for Coolahan, Irish Education, p. 7. enumerated above. Even the state the Catholic church, and of course for Reports of the Commissioners of National inspectorate appreciated and approved of those girls and young women who were in Education in Ireland from the year 1846 to the transference to these young women of their charge. Naturally the nuns were not 1848, inclusive, ii, p. 163. Reports of the Commissioners ... p. 167. appropriate attitudes and behaviours such perfect; their methods of teaching were not the best either for their pupils or Hutch, Nano Nagle, p. 349. as discipline and organisation. The past Initial application for the Sexton Street students of Sexton Street were ones that monitors and their effectiveness was female school, Limerick, Roll number 5547, not alone were a credit to their religious undoubtedly hindered by the enclosed 19 October, 1848; MS in PROI. and moral training but also to the nature of their lives. Nevertheless, during Hutch, Nano Nagle, p. 352. socialisation they had received which the thirty or so years from the foundation H.C. 1864 (179) XLVI, p. 11. helped make them 'worthy members of of the convent to the Powis Commission Ibid. Ibid., p. 11. the great family of mankind'. they achieved a great deal of good, for in those years they fed, clothed and educated H.C. 1864 (405), XLVI, p. 158. We have seen how the Presentation Ibid., p. 159. nuns in Limerick participated in the a proportion of the female population of Ibid. transformation of Irish society in the Limerick who would otherwise have Ibid, p. 158. nineteenth century. They helped con- lacked those benefits. In so doing, they Powis Commission, i, part 1, p. 388. solidate the position of the Catholic provided role models for their young As quoted in Considine, Listening Journq, students, inspired many to join them in p. 295. church by means of their educational H.C. 1864 (405), XLVI, p. 159. endeavours. By doing this they were also their continuing educational mission and without argument, improved the quality of Powis Commission, VII, p. 441. helping their charges experience the Ibid. p. 393. benefits of 'The Constitution' and more lie for many in the city of Limerick. Folio 91, Register Ed 2/189, Sexton Street particularly were aiding their female female convent school, Limerick, PROI. pupils acquire the ideological and practical REFERENCES H.C. 1864 (405), XLVI, p. 198. 1. attributes deemed necessary for a fitting Although there are technical differences Ibid. between the terms 'sister' and 'nun' and Hutch, Nano Nagle, p. 351. and (if they were lucky) a fulfilled also 'congregation' and 'order' for the H.C. 1864 (4051, CLVI, p. 158. existence. The convent and its school purposes of this article they are used Powis Commission, ii, p. 293. became part of Limerick life and its interchangeably. Ibid. p. 302.