Religion, Writing and Reputation in the Life of Mary Francis Cusack

The ‘nun’ as narrative: religion, writing and reputation in the life of Mary Francis Cusack

Harrison, B. (2021). The ‘nun’ as narrative: religion, writing and reputation in the life of Mary Francis Cusack. Women's History Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2021.1908494

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The ‘nun’ as narrative: religion, writing and reputation in the life of Mary Francis Cusack

Bridget Harrison

To cite this article: Bridget Harrison (2021): The ‘nun’ as narrative: religion, writing and reputation in the life of Mary Francis Cusack, Women's History Review, DOI: 10.1080/09612025.2021.1908494 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2021.1908494

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The ‘nun’ as narrative: religion, writing and reputation in the life of Mary Francis Cusack Bridget Harrison Rathmines, Dublin 6, Ireland

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS Mary Francis Cusack (1829–1899) was a proliﬁc writer, historian and Mary Francis Cusack; publisher, producing over forty books during her life-time. She was Margaret Anna Cusack; a vocal supporter of the Land League, an advocate for female women religious; nineteenth education and an early believer in the Marian apparitions at century; Ireland; publishing; Knock; nun of Kenmare; Knock. She was also, for much of her career, an enclosed nun. devotional revolution Her religious identity was essential to the literary persona which she cultivated throughout her career. Through her books and the press, she relied upon and adapted common tropes associated with women religious in order to give her opinions weight. By doing so she was, perversely, able to write about topics normally oﬀ-limits to women religious. Even after converting to Methodism in later life, her identity as a former nun was integral to how she presented herself. Cusack’s fame and success provides a valuable insight into the position and visibility of religious women in nineteenth-century society.

Introduction1 Mary Francis Cusack poses a predicament for the nineteenth-century historian. In an era when nuns were, as Caitriona Clear termed it, ‘visible but not vocal’, she was an outspo- ken commentator on issues of education, poverty, Irish nationalism and women’s rights.2 She sought public attention by appealing to her authority as a woman religious, even though that identity typically precluded women from doing so.3 Her literary and political pursuits brought her into contact with Catholics and Protestants, rich and poor, from across the English-speaking world. They also brought her into such conﬂict with the Church, that both the Poor Clares, which she joined, and the Congregation of St. Joseph of the Peace (hereafter CSJP) which she founded, distanced themselves from her after her death.4 Yet, above all things, Mary Francis Cusack was a nun. Her writing, political activism and care of the poor all tied into her personal apostolate. In addition, her literary career and public persona were predicated on the cultural authority which being a woman religious lent her. The number of women religious in Ireland increased from 122 in 1800–1,500 in 1850 and 8,000 by 1900.5 Over ninety per cent joined active congregations, those which did not

CONTACT Bridget Harrison [email protected] Bridget is an independent researcher based in Dublin, 16 Daroge, Seven Oaks, Rathmines, Dublin 6, D06 H681, Ireland © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. 2 B. HARRISON observe enclosure and provided spiritual and temporal support to the public.6 In Irish society, they were increasingly seen as teachers responsible for both practical and spiritual education (particularly that of girls and women) and as carers for the poor and infirm. Their resurgence also fed public awareness of the Catholic Church’s rising influence, as well as helping to reinforce that. These perceptions preceded Cusack’s career and helped to guide how she presented herself to the public. Many of Cusack’s twentieth-century biographies focused on her political beliefs and conflicts with the Church hierarchy.7 These interpretations have tended to focus on Cusack’s unique position as a woman religious and her ability to create controversy. As a result, they did not address the fact that Cusack became well known because of her status as a nun, rather than despite it. By minimising the significance of her religious identity, and especially her persona as ‘the nun of Kenmare’, historians have also struggled to incorporate Cusack’s later career as an anti-Catholic polemicist into her life story. By looking specifically at how Cusack constructed her literary career and created an alternative model for how nuns could be represented in the Irish public sphere, it is possible to address these issues.

Biographical details Margaret Anna Cusack, also known as Mary Francis Cusack and Mary Francis Clare Cusack, was born in Dublin on 6 May 1829.8 Her father, Samuel Cusack, was a baronet but her grandfather’s early death and Samuel’s own ill health hampered the family’s financial security.9 For much of her childhood, the family relied on financial support from other relatives. Her parents separated when she was fourteen and her mother brought her to Exeter. Cusack remained in England after the death of her father the following year, but her relationship with her mother deteriorated.10 She attended boarding school until the age of sixteen, following which Philomena McCarthy asserts that she sat in on her brother’s classes with a private tutor, where she learned Latin and first became interested in female education.11 Raised as a member of the Church of Ireland, Cusack was always interested in religion. Although she attended revivalist meetings as a child, she was drawn to the Oxford Movement, a movement which emphasised continuity between Anglicanism and the early Church and developed practices and rituals which were similar to those of Roman Catholicism.12 Many low-church Anglicans (those who sought to de-emphasise the authority of clergy and significance of rituals and sacraments) looked on the movement with suspicion fearing it would undermine Anglicanism’s Protestant foundations.13 After the death of her fiancé, a schoolfriend of her brother’s, Cusack suffered a prolonged illness. She found refuge in religion during this period, and her recovery coincided with her decision to join an Anglican sisterhood, the Society of the Most Holy Trinity.14 The community sent nurses to the Crimea and ran an orphanage, several schools, a hospital and various other charitable institutions. However, it struggled to gain the members and financial contributions needed to maintaintheseprojects,andovertimetookonamorecontemplativecharacter.15 For Cusack, the congregation not only offered spiritual growth and purpose, but also enabled her to further distance herself from her family and avoid a life of spinsterhood.16 WOMEN’S HISTORY REVIEW 3

Ultimately, Cusack followed many other members of the Oxford movement and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1858. Her growing dissatisfaction with the Anglican sisterhood was partly due to limited opportunities to provide practical support, particularly when poor health prevented her from serving as a nurse in the Crimean war.17 The vocation to help and educate the poor influenced the rest of her vocation and was shared by many religious foundresses, such as Catherine McAuley (foundress of the Sisters of Mercy) and Nano Nagle (foundress of the Presentation Sisters).18 Following her conversion to Catholicism, she entered the convent of the Poor Clares in Co. Down. She began writing and gained acclaim as a historian, novelist and political commentator. After a series of conflicts with the Irish ecclesiastical hierarchy, primarily as the result of an incident in 1881 when she moved from Kenmare to Knock seemingly without ecclesiastical approval, she moved to Nottingham in England to begin her own congregation. Follow- ing that, she travelled to the United States, and ultimately converted to Methodism after growing increasingly frustrated with clerical interference. She died in Leamington Spa in England in 1899, a controversial figure unreconciled with the Catholic Church.19

Cusack as a woman religious Cusack’s decision to join a religious congregation was inexorably linked with her literary success. Rather than conflicting with literary pursuits, religious life actually enabled Cusack to prioritise writing. While she was exceptional in terms of the volume of written work, she benefitted from a pre-existing market for Catholic literature and was one of several literary nuns writing at the time. Both her vocation and her literary output must be understood in the context of nineteenth-century Catholicism and Catho- lic literature. Prior to her conversion, Cusack was attracted to the aspects of Anglicanism most closely resembling Roman Catholicism and her time in an Anglican sisterhood informed her later identity as a Catholic nun. Her first autobiography, Five years in a Protestant sisterhood and ten years in a Catholic convent, explored her conversion in detail. She presented her time in the Society of the Most Holy Trinity as a pale imitation of the true spiritual fulfilment she found in the Poor Clares.20 Upon leaving the Anglican sisterhood, Cusack immediately began investigating Catholic religious orders, hoping to again dedicate her life to God. She joined a Poor Clare convent in Newry, Ireland the following year.21 Five years in a Protestant sisterhood notes that one of the immediate causes of her conversion was a desire to provide the poor with religious education and particularly to encourage them to partake in Communion.22 This drive toward charity and education characterised her work throughout the rest of her life. Cusack’s choice of order on first appearances seems like a poor fit given her interest in helping the poor. While active orders were on the rise, the Poor Clares were an enclosed congregation formed in the thirteenth century. First recorded in Ireland in 1625, the order was known for its strict religious rule and severe ascetism. Given her comprehen- sive critique of Anglican sisterhoods, Five years in a Protestant Sisterhood was surpris- ingly vague about her reasons for joining the Poor Clares, claiming that they would not interest the reader. The Irish branch relaxed its enclosure in the early nineteenth century to enable charitable work, so she may have hoped that it would provide a balance between her desire to help the poor directly and through writing.23 4 B. HARRISON

This writing was central to her efforts to provide spiritual aid. Immediately after her conversion, before she left for Ireland, the archbishop of Westminster, Nicholas Wiseman, advised Cusack to start publishing for Catholic readers.24 In choosing to write, Cusack was contributing to a developing canon of Irish devotional literature. National education was introduced in Ireland in 1831 and by the 1860s, when Cusack began her literary career in earnest, literacy rates had risen to sixty-one percent.25 The Catholic publishing market grew significantly, as the ecclesiastical hierarchy saw it as a valuable means to assure doctrinal orthodoxy and encourage devotions amongst the laity. By the time Cusack began writing, there were a vast range books and periodicals written from a Catholic perspective on the market.26 In the 1860s, Cusack was part of a small group of Newry nuns who travelled to Kenmare to start a new foundation.27 Within her order, her primary role was that of author. Even upon her arrival in Kenmare, when the rest of the community worked to prepare a schoolhouse, Cusack set aside time and space to write.28 Throughout her time in Kenmare she received dispensations from various religious duties, suggesting that she had the support of her community and superiors.29 While unusual, Cusack’s dedication to writing was compatible with religious life, and indeed enclosure, as prac- tised in the nineteenth century. Frances Taylor, foundress of the English congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God, was a successful writer and editor before becoming a nun.30 Once her congregation was established, Taylor continued writing and published a number of fiction and non-fiction books.31 In Ireland, the Dominican nun Mary Stanislaus MacCarthy received acclaim as a poet and author, publishing spiritual verses in the Irish Monthly as well as a biography of St. Emmelia.32 Religious life played a significant role in Cusack’s public image. Several reviews and commentators connected her enclosure with a romanticised sense of the Irish past, when monks recorded historical events in sacred seclusion. The poet Denis Florence MacCarthy wrote ‘The nun of sweet Kenmare’ in 1872, in which he described the area of Kenmare in detail, connecting Cusack with the remote, rural locality.33 His imagery created a sense of continuity between Cusack and the Celtic past, which in turn leant her works religious and literary credibility. In 1878 Cusack wrote Spouse of Christ: her duties and her privileges, an advice book specifically for women religious. The text aimed at helping nuns reach ‘high degrees of perfection’, instructing them on topics such as how to uphold their vows, avoid being ‘infected with the spirit of the world’ while coming into frequent contact with laity, and how to prepare for death.34 Cusack was so well regarded as a nun that she was trusted to advise others on how to be ideal nuns. In the 1880s, Cusack used her reputation as a nun to promote new religious ideas. In 1879, a group of residents of the small town of Knock in Co. Mayo claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, by the gable of the local church. Word of mouth and subsequent press coverage led to widespread public interest and the town quickly became a pilgrimage site. Locals and pilgrims reported receiving miraculous cures when they prayed at the site of the apparition or touched the church’s stonework.35 The event captured global attention. Although the Catholic Church was slow to officially acknowledge the miracles at Knock, Cusack wrote two letters outlining the evidence for miracles in Knock for the Dublin Weekly Nation in Sep- tember 1880.36 The following year, she wrote to the Freeman’s Journal, claiming that she WOMEN’S HISTORY REVIEW 5 personally had received a cure while at Knock.37 She wrote two books on the apparition, The apparition at Knock in 1880 and Three visits to Knock in 1882.38 In the preface to the latter, she acknowledged that the miracles were still unverified, but claimed that shrines were often more miraculous when first established as ‘God would specially reward the faith of those who first came to the place He had so honoured.’39 Thus, without directly undermining the Church, she made a clear pronouncement about the veracity of the cures and apparitions. Despite the growing popularity of Knock, her willingness to place her own personal narratives above the official position of the Church highlights her confidence in her own authority and place in the public eye.

Cusack as a publisher and marketer While Cusack was not the only literary nun, she was exceptionally prolific, publishing extensively and consistently during her time in Kenmare. Part of her success was due to her ability to utilise the pre-existing network of Catholic publishers and to use her success and reputation to market her work. However, while her career depended on her role as a woman religious, on occasion it brought her into conflict with her ecclesiastical supervisors and her community. Cusack’s success as a writer and publisher is evident by the sheer volume of work she produced and published. Over the course of her life, she wrote over forty books, including devotional guides, advice books, histories, biographies and novels.40 Many of these books found enough commercial success to merit multiple editions. Her Illustrated history of Ireland from the earliest period went through two editions in 1869 and 1873. She then repurposed the material for other books such as Patriot’s history of Ireland.41 Devotional works, such as The pilgrim’s way to heaven also went through multiple editions, as did her Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Life of St. Patrick.42 In the ten year period between 1862 and 1871, her works earned approximately £3,000 in book sales. Sales continued to grow so that by 1880–81 she earned royalties of £360 in only five months.43 Cusack was effective at choosing her publishers and distributors to communicate information to the reader. She worked most frequently with the London-based Burns & Oates and the Dublin-based M.H. Gill and Sons, both of which were well-known Catholic publishing houses.44 This helped to ensure that she reached Catholic readers who would be interested in her religious messages. However, she also published several books with the English company Longmans & Co, which did not exclusively publish Catholic work. The historian Patrick Maume theorised that Cusack hoped publishing her Illustrated history with Longmans would boost English sales, and in turn help to educate the English about Irish culture.45 The choice of publisher also helped to communicate that her work had academic merit. This is reflected in the fact that every book she published with Longman had historical themes, although her Life of St. Patrick and Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary also had spiritual aspects.46 Cusack took an active role in marketing of her books. In 1874 she worked with the Boston-based literary agent Patrick Donoghue to boost her American sales, and in 1878 she advertised for literary agents in Ireland.47 Her books regularly carried catalo- gues of her other publications, separated into categories such as ‘the cheap lives of saints’ and ‘Christmas books’ to mark them out to particular audiences. It also listed 6 B. HARRISON prices, which varied from a penny to over one pound.48 Cusack ran her own literary imprint, named Kenmare Publications, for which she was the sole author.49 Although Cusack published very few of her books exclusively through Kenmare Publications, suggesting that she maintained positive relationships with her publishers, the imprint gave her greater financial control. Through Kenmare Publications she could distribute books at a lower cost than a standard publishing house, allowing her to sell devotional texts cheaply and making it easier to reach the Irish poor.50 Cusack continued to support the working classes through her writing. In her preface to her novel Tim O’Halloran’s choice, she asserted that Catholic literature needed to be appropriate to readers’ education levels, demonstrating an awareness of the different requirements of less educated audiences.51 She also included a post-script to The pilgrim’s way to heaven which encouraged wealthy Catholics to finance libraries and to provide the poor with edifying literature.52 Her most popular book, Advice to Irish girls in America, was written in response to extensive female emigration from Ireland during the nineteenth century. In the decade prior to the book’s release, over 750,000 people left Ireland, many of whom were single women travelling alone.53 Cusack intended Advice to Irish girls to be both a practical and spiritual guide for these women and provided information on topics as varied as how not to waste food to how to explain Catholicism to Protestants.54 It was hugely successful, selling tens of thousands of copies through twenty editions. She followed this with A nun’s advice to her girls, which she published for the women who chose to stay in Ireland and enter domestic service.55 Much of the book addressed not just work and faith, but also appropriate behaviour. For instance, she warned her readers against buying ‘fine clothes, which are not suitable to her station in life’ and suggesting servants ‘with a good master and mistress … where she can attend regularly to her religious duties’ should not search for better paid employment.56 As such, they contributed to pre-existing genre of advice books written by wealthy women for the Irish working classes. For example, the Protestant writer, Cathe- rine Alexander, wrote Friendly advice to Irish mothers, on training their children in 1840.57 Catholic periodicals frequently carried articles for women, providing another source of prescriptive literature.58 Other works directly targeted middle-class readers. Her correspondence reveals that she hoped that her biography of Daniel O’Connell would inspire ‘the middle classes’ to emulate his brand of politics.59 While it is difficult to accurately identify the readership of her histories, the subscribers list in the first editions of A history of the kingdom of Kerry and The liberator: his life and times give some hint of her intended audience. Cusack funded these editions through subscriptions, and the name, address and in some cases the occupation of the donors were printed at the back of the book. These occupations covered a range of fields mostly representing the middle classes. For instance, twelve MPs subscribed to The liberator, as did four police officers, seven teachers, two earls and 160 male religious. Seventy-seven priests subscribed to The kingdom of Kerry, as did four grocers, seven doctors and thirty-three justices of the peace.60 While almost all of her subscribers were based in Ireland, several were from Great Britain and the United States, with a small number of donors from other countries.61 Most of Cusack’s books were published under her own name, making her unique amongst contemporary author-nuns. Mary Stanislaus MacCarthy only ever signed her WOMEN’S HISTORY REVIEW 7 work ‘S.M.S.’ while she was alive. According to her obituary in the Dublin Daily Nation, she ‘wrote for neither money nor fame’ and her work was never written for publication. Her first book of poetry was only published after her death.62 Similarly, Frances Taylor published her work anonymously, although the title pages of her books typically referenced her other publications.63 As late as 1913, when the Dominican Sisters in Cabra released an edited collection of their annals, one reviewer in the Irish Quarterly Review applauded the author for her ‘modesty’ in publishing the book anonymously.64 By contrast, male religious often published under their own names, including those who were part of religious orders. For instance, Matthew Russell, a prominent Jesuit and founder of the Irish Monthly literary magazine, released several books under his own name.65 At first, Cusack followed this convention. However, in 1868 she published Illustrated history of Ireland under the initials ‘M.F.C.’. The following year the Patriot’s history of Ireland named its author ‘M.F. Cusack’.66 This moniker may have been an attempt to dis- guise her gender, particularly during the initial phase of her literary career. Although female historians had some success during the nineteenth century, the field was over- whelmingly dominated by male authors.67 By contrast, she often published religious texts under variations of the name ‘Sister Mary Francis Clare’, more closely tying them in with her religious identity in order to legitimise her work.68 By publishing under her own name, Cusack began to develop a public persona based on her writing. Mary Francis Cusack made it clear that her writing had clerical support. Books often carried approbations or imprimaturs from bishops or senior clergy, as a way of signalling to potential readers that the books were doctrinally sound.69 In The nun of Kenmare, Cusack noted that David Moriarty, the bishop of Ardfert and Aghadoe, wrote a letter to her praising her literary pursuits. He encouraged her to publish the letter as evidence that her books had ecclesiastical approval.70 Cusack included the letter in several publications, and in 1875 featured it in a full-page advertisement in the Freeman’s Journal.71 In 1870, Cusack received a letter of approbation from Pope Pius IX.72 When advertising for literary agents in 1877 and 1878, Cusack noted that this approbation assured quick sales.73 These short notices obscure the work of securing clerical backing. In The story of my life, her final biography which she wrote after her conversion to Methodism, she complained that her decision to dedicate one of her early books to her mother superior, Mary O’Hagan, alienated the local clergy, who felt that she should have dedicated it to her bishop. As a result, many bishops refused to give her books imprimaturs.74 It is difficult to verify whether this was a genuine oversight on the part of Cusack, or a deliberate snub of the Irish clergy, with whom she had prolonged disagreements later in her career. However, her correspondence corroborates her claim that she struggled to gain clerical support. Cusack wrote repeatedly to Patrick Francis Moran, private secretary to the archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Paul Cullen, asking for a letter of recommendation for The life of St. Patrick.75 She also asked for Cullen’s imprimatur when writing The Lib- erator. No such endorsement appeared when the books were eventually published, which, given her repeated requests, suggests a deliberate snub.76 Cusack’s works were also occasionally subject to criticism by other Irish clergymen. In The nun of Kenmare, she claimed that a priest publicly accused her of heresy for one of her early books, not realising that it was a translation of devotions by St. Alphonsus 8 B. HARRISON

Liguori and therefore the advice of a recognised saint.77 An article in the Irish Ecclesias- tical Record, published in 1875, raised concerns about a pamphlet written by Cusack for the pope’s jubilee. For the occasion, the pope had given specific instructions about prayers and devotions that Catholics could practice in order to obtain an indulgence. It claimed that Cusack’s pamphlet repeated prayers that were ‘altogether unsuited’ for the jubilee, and suggested that she had not carefully read the encyclical outlining the new practices.78 Cusack replied to the publication, claiming that her book had been revised by the historian and vice-president of Maynooth College, Daniel McCarthy.79 These interferences, although minor, suggest that Cusack was not fully accepted as a writer by sectors within the Irish hierarchy. Despite their tacit support of her work, Cusack’s literary success also generated distance between her and her congregation. It is important not to overstate the impact of Cusack’s writing on her religious life, as Cusack was not the only woman religious whose observation of the religious rule of her community was hampered by her exter- nal obligations. For instance, the foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Faith, Margaret Aylward, did not wear religious dress, feeling that it interfered with her ability to carry out business on behalf of the congregation and its orphanage.80 However, many aspects of Cusack’s life were at variance with that of the rest of the Poor Clares. While based in Kenmare, Bishop Moriarty allowed her to keep a private bank account and to run the business of publishing separate from the accounts of the rest of the community.81 Other members of the congregation could not access this account, though the book’s profits did contribute to the convent funds.82 The total surrender of personal property to the community was central to women religious’ practice of poverty.83 She also had a room of her own, a luxury not shared by the other Kenmare nuns and regularly received visitors.84 While the convent allowed this, the writer Sr. Philomena McCarthy claimed it happened with such frequency as to interfere with the spirit of enclosure.85 Even when sanctioned by a bishop, this arrangement was unusual. The financial aspect of Cusack’s writing caused further conflict once she settled in Knock. Her former superior, Mary Theresa Lowry, insisted that under canon law, the Kenmare convent had a right to the profits from the writing which Cusack completed while was living there. Lowry also refused to pay the debts that Cusack had incurred for publishing before she left the congregation, arguing that Cusack had sole responsibil- ity over publishing, so the convent should not be obligated to pay her debts. Finally, Lowry claimed that Cusack had received £729 when leaving Kenmare and that she therefore owed the Kenmare convent a total of £831 5s 3d.86 Cusack submitted a written argu- ment to Thomas Croke, the archbishop of Cashel, who mediated the disagreement. She asserted that, as Bishop Moriarty had given her his approbation when he was alive, it meant that he acknowledged her and not her community as the publisher.87 Cusack’s defence was unsuccessful and she ultimately returned £830 to her former home. The conflict contributed to her detachment from her former community.88

Cusack and politics Cusack wrote in a time when women were becoming increasingly politically engaged. In addition to taking leading roles in the women’s movement, women were involved in WOMEN’S HISTORY REVIEW 9 nationalism, unionism and the labour movement throughout the second half of the nineteenth century.89 It is therefore unsurprising that Cusack also wrote on these issues. However, although she was not the only female political writer in Ireland, she was unique as a woman religious. As such, she tended to present her political writing as commentary on more acceptable topics such as education, philanthropy and history. In so doing, she tied her political opinions into her identity as a nun and her associated expertise. Cusack’s political work started with her historical writing, which often had political elements. For instance, An illustrated history of Ireland examined Ireland’s past through a nationalist and Catholic lens. She depicted pre-Norman Ireland as advanced and peaceful emphasising the perseverance of Catholicism in Ireland and the persecution its adherents faced as a result.90 She emphasised the importance of Daniel O’Connell as a pacifist leader, claiming that his presence in France during the French Revolution ‘added to his own admirably keen common sense, saved him from leading his countrymen on to deeds of open violence’.91 This reflects the contemporary dichotomy in Irish nationalism, between those who wished to gain self-rule through military uprisings, such as the Fenians, and those who sought to do so through parliamentary methods.92 Her disavowal of nationalist violence brought her in line with the Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Paul Cullen. He was vehemently opposed to the Fenian movement and advocated for moderate constitutional nationalism rather than military force.93 The fact that Cusack’s opinions so closely mirrored Cullen’s, the unofficial head of the Irish Church, lead some spectators to question whether her pacifist message was disin- genuous. When reviewing the Patriot’s History of Ireland, the Irishman accused Cusack of ‘West-Britonism’, due to its non-violent outlook, although the paper suggested that this was due to ‘influences … within the walls of her own convent’ pushing her to mirror the Church’s non-violent stance.94 Furthermore, Cusack’s Illustrated history of Ireland was advertised as a competitor to the Young Irelander John Mitchel’s History of Ireland and, although he questioned her discussions of violence, Mitchel himself was profuse in his praise.95 By writing histories, Cusack was able to lean on ideas of female religious life to lend her greater authority. Women religious played an important role in Irish education and writing a historical text could be interpreted as part of this duty. Indeed, Cusack repurposed much of the material from An illustrated history to produce the textbook The student’s manual of Irish history.96 Focusing on history also drew on a romanticised idea of the Celtic Irish past, when enclosed monks recorded historical events in seclusion. John Mitchel, for instance, remarked that Cusack ‘rivals all the old monkish chroniclers’ a statement which was widely quoted in the press.97 Cusack continued to couch her political beliefs in historical writing throughout the 1870s. In 1872, she published The liberator: his life & times, political, social and religious, followed by The speeches and public letters of the liberator, which she released in 1875.98 Cusack wrote to Patrick Francis Moran that she wanted to provide the Irish middle classes with the example of ‘a fine Catholic’, in order to prevent further outbreaks of political violence.99 This reflected the opinions of Paul Cullen, who both rejected political violence and was deeply sceptical about the emerging Home Rule movement and its Pro- testant leader, Sir Isaac Butt.100 By focusing on O’Connell, Cusack advocated for a 10 B. HARRISON version of Irish nationalism which the Church hierarchy approved of, as well as one which was both non-violent and inherently Catholic. The biography’s readership reveals its political agenda. In its introduction, Cusack claimed that the book was written to educate English readers. She referenced a contemporary debate about the Irish fishing industry in order to highlight the need for English policy makers to understand Irish history.101 This explicitly outlined the biography’s political purpose, while still framing it as work of history. However, despite her claim that she intended the book to be read in England, she published the first editions in Ireland and the United States.102 She also funded the publication of The Liberator through subscriptions, and, while a handful of the subscribers were from Britain and America, the vast majority were resident in Ireland, proving that Cusack knew its main audience was Irish and American.103 When writing her 1874 book, Woman’s work in modern society, Cusack appealed directly to her identity as a nun to give her opinions weight.104 Cusack was by no means the first nor the most progressive Irish woman to publicly discuss women’s rights. For instance, Isabella Tod began campaigning in 1867.105 By the 1870s Tod had already started publicly advocating for women’ssuffrage, while Cusack mostly confined herself to discussing female education and property rights.106 However, it was far more unusual for women religious to publicly debate these issues. In the preface, she wrote that nuns were ideally placed to comment on ‘the affairs of humanity, since practically they stand apart from them.’107 In this manner, she was able to pass off her political writing as originating from her religious identity. The first half of the book then discussed female education, an area where women religious had increasing cultural sway.108 Writing about women’s education was therefore a natural extension of her life as a nun. Only in chapters twelve ‘First principles – are women to be Christian or Pagan’ and thirteen ‘The Christian woman in society’, does she begin to comment on the place of women more broadly. She framed this as a religious question, first warning against moral issues such as ‘immodesty and extravagance of dress.’ Only then, in the final chapters did she call for greater autonomy and rights for women.109 In 1879–80, the potato harvest in the west of Ireland failed. While farmers were less dependent on the crop than they had been prior to the Great Famine (1845–51), the food shortage still threatened widespread poverty and starvation. Against this backdrop, the Irish National Land League was formed in order to agitate for land reform, starting a mass movement commonly referred to as the land war.110 Cusack, based in Kenmare in the south-west of the country, set up the Kenmare Relief Fund to distribute aid to the locality. She sent a series of advertisements promoting the fund to newspapers across Britain, Ireland, and the United States, specifically targeting papers whose editors or owners were sympathetic to Irish causes.111 Cusack justified this action, which was extre- mely high-profile for a woman religious (particularly for an enclosed nun), by framing it as philanthropy and poor relief, which was a common part of women religious’ duties. 112 She asserted that she could not hold ‘a bazaar, or charity-sermon’, more common methods of fundraising for women religious, due to her vow of enclosure and remote location.113 The campaign added to her international fame and she became emblematic of the relief effort. Concerts were organised in Dublin and London to fundraise for her appeal. In newspaper reports of Kenmare Relief Committee meetings, Cusack was frequently credited as the only person responsible for distributing aid.114 WOMEN’SHISTORYREVIEW 11

Her reaction to the local famine and connections with the Land League altered the outlook of Cusack’s political writing. The present case of Ireland stated; a plea for my people and my race, published in 1881, was her most overtly political work to date. 115 It opened with her eponymous case, where she stated that the Land War represented ‘the strike of a whole nation against unjust government’. She argued that the majority of Irish social and economic problems were the result of British misrule, echoing points made by members of the Land League and the Irish Parliamentary Party. As was the case with women’s rights, Cusack was one of several women interested in land reform in Ireland. The Ladies’ Land League was formally instituted on 31 January 1881, and while Cusack was not a member, she had previous dealings with its leader, Anna Parnell.116 Similarly, Cusack’s support of the Land League’s ideals mirrored that of many male ecclesiastics. The majority of Irish bishops vocally supported the Land League, and still more allowed local clergy to take an active role in the organisation.117 However, writing about contemporary politics was unheard of for a woman religious, and could have been interpreted as a breach of enclosure. As a result, Cusack still used aspects of her vocation to justify her commentary on the Land War and the Irish Ques- tion. As was the case with The Liberator, she published the first edition in Ireland, but suggested the book addressed the ignorance of English readers.118 By presenting the intended market as English, it enabled Cusack to present her writing as educational, rather than polemical. Similarly, she couched many of her arguments in historical debate. Chapter fifteen, ‘The present repeats the past—A tithe agitation in Kerry’, for instance, compared conflict over tithe payments in the 1830s to the contemporary arrests of members of the Land League.119 Thus, even when more closely aligning herself with a contemporary political issue, she used her authority as a historian to justify her opinions. By presenting political works as other genres such as history or moral guides, Cusack became increasingly vocal about contemporary Irish politics. In A plea for Ireland and Women’s Work, Cusack moved beyond the normal scope of political commentary open to even literary nuns and began to overtly critique Irish society. Yet, despite moving outside of the normal purview of women religious, she still relied on that identity to justify her doing so.

The nun away from Kenmare Cusack’s literary career slowed considerably in the 1880s as she struggled to find her place in religious life. On 16 November 1881, Cusack left Kenmare for Knock, seemingly without ecclesiastical permission.120 She was ultimately allowed to start a convent in the town in 1882 but the incident permanently alienated her from most of the hierarchy.121 These relationships continued to disintegrate, and by December 1883 Cusack believed she would not be allowed to stay in Knock once the convent building was complete. She wrote to another member of her congregation that ‘there is no recourse for us but to go’.122 Cusack and the other members of her community travelled to England (with ecclesiastical permission and by the invitation of Bishop Edward Bagshawe of Notting- ham) to start the CSJP, however her bad reputation followed her.123 In 1884, Cusack departed for America, in the hope that she could establish an Amer- ican branch of her congregation and raise money for her English projects. 124 However, 12 B. HARRISON even there she struggled to find common ground with the male ecclesiastical hierarchy. The archbishop of New York, Michael Corrigan withheld permission for her to establish a new branch of the CSJP in the city and, according to her biography, forbade her from entering the State.125 Despite some continued public support, Cusack wrote to Pope Leo XIII in 1888, announcing her departure from the community she herself had founded. 126 Shortly after, she converted to Methodism.127 Cusack’s biographers have analysed the clerical response to her leaving in great detail, most attributing their growing animosity toward her as a mixture of institutional sexism and frustration with Cusack’s single-mindedness.128 However, what is often lost in these discussions is the religious element of her actions in Knock and abroad. Cusack’s desire to settle in Knock is unsurprising, given its growing importance as a pilgrimage site and her own belief in the veracity of its apparition. She also felt that driven by God to promote vocational training for poor Irish girls. In addition to the advice books she published for working women, in Women’s Work Cusack outlined plans for schools which trained girls for specific, practical employment.129 The Kenmare Convent provided lace-making training to local women, however Cusack doubted that many women could make an ade- quate living through lacemaking, particularly if they chose to emigrate.130 By contrast, in her brief time in Knock she trained locals in diverse skills such as improved butter-churn- ing, machine knitting and the making of ear-nets to protect horses from flies.131 Simi- larly, the CSJP was expressly founded to provide social and religious education for poor girls132 The foundation she established in Birmingham trained girls for domestic life, grouping students into family units to create a degree of verisimilitude, while her New Jersey convent provided vocational training to poor immigrants.133 Thus, while leaving Kenmare damaged her standing within the Church, her decision to go should be read in part as a spiritual act, which provided her greater control over her own expressions of faith. As Cusack attempted to take control of her public image in the face of growing clerical opposition, she emphasised the spiritual and vocational aspects of her decision. In 1882, encouraged by the local parish priest, Cusack wrote a pamphlet entitled Why I left Kenmare. Her intention was to stop rumours that she had defied her ecclesiastical superiors and broken her vow of obedience. The pamphlet consisted of reprinted letters from her former superior and members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, indicating that she had received their approval, with little commentary.134 The choice to minimise her own explanation was likely a deliberate attempt to seem less wilful than the incident might suggest. After her departure for Birmingham, her New York literary agent, James Rogers, wrote telling her that American Catholics were uncertain why she left Ireland, and their confusion was hurting book sales. She produced a pamphlet entitled Why I became a Sister of the Peace in response, in which she framed her decision as a spiritual one and that God inspired her to start a new order. 135 As with her previous pamphlet, she emphasised that all of her actions had ecclesiastical permission. She commented that the Bishop of Nottingham had given her permission to explain why she started a new congregation, and later in the text ensured readers that she took the advice of her spiritual director before leaving Knock. Her account ignored the fraught relationship she had had with Knock’s parish priest, Archdeacon Cavanagh, and her belief that the hierarchy planned to drive her away from Knock. By repeatedly appealing to the authority of the (by that stage dwindling) number of clergy who supported her, she also hoped to WOMEN’SHISTORYREVIEW 13 highlight her own orthodoxy, and limit the extent to which the public saw her as med- dling or troublesome. Why I became a Sister of the Peace emphasised the similarities between the Poor Clares and the CSJP. It noted that both observed ‘simple’ vows which were regularly renewed rather than the lifelong, ‘solemn’ vows taken by some other congregations, and that the Irish Poor Clares had never been exclusively contemplative. While there were few direct contradictions between the two, Cusack’s statement minimised the very real differ- ences in the rules of the two congregations. The CSJP was expressly dedicated to the education of poor girls, while the feature which traditionally defined the Poor Clares was their unusually strict interpretation of their vow of poverty. Additionally, while the Irish Poor Clares had somewhat relaxed their practice of enclosure to facilitate education, they were not active in the same way as the CSJP were to be.136 By emphasising the positive aspects of her new congregation and the spiritual nature of her decision, she again asserted her identity as a woman religious, presenting her new congregation as one fuelled by faith rather than a desire for control. These themes are even more pronounced in The nun of Kenmare: an autobiography, which she published shortly after leaving religious life. Written to placate her disap- pointed fans and donors, the book framed her departure as an unfortunate necessity. The bulk of the book detailed various conflicts she had throughout her thirty years in the Poor Clares. The intended effect was to present herself as a beleaguered victim of unnecessary interference on the part of clergy. Its opening pages contained a photograph of herself in full religious habit and a transcript of her letter of resignation to Pope Leo XIII. In the letter, she wrote that ‘I have found such opposition to this work [referring to the education of poor girls] … that I am obliged to retire from it.’137 She apologised for shirking her duties and referenced the fact that she had received Papal approval to start the CSJP in 1884. By doing so, she alluded to her previous departure from Knock and demonstrated her adherence to the rules of the Catholic Church. In this way, Cusack attempted to control perceptions of her leaving the Church, presenting herself as a moral and dogged adherent to her vows who was ultimately forced to leave. Following her conversion to Methodism, Cusack gave a series of lectures in England and the United States.138 Although planned to discuss the living conditions of emigrants and working-class women, she found it hard to garner interest. Instead, she lectured about her experiences of the Catholic Church to Protestant audiences.139 She also continued to write. These texts saw her distance herself even further from the Catholic Church. Most leant on common anti-Catholic themes and ideas, and her final biography, The story of my life featured a photograph of Cusack in secular garb.140 However, she continued to refer to her own authority as a former woman religious and blended her experiences with more traditional anti-Catholic complaints. For instance, she began Life inside the Church of Rome with a discussion of clerical celibacy. After arguing against the scriptural basis for the practice, she outlined several anecdotes of priests who had seduced women in their care.141 This was a common trope in contemporary anti-Catholic literature, which Cusack would have been aware of.142 However by including it in her own book, she lent the claims her own authority. She also continued to publish some of her books under the name ‘M.F. Cusack’, a reference to her religious name, and referenced her former moniker of ‘the nun of Kenmare’, thus tying her new work in with her former identity.143 14 B. HARRISON

Cusack’s decision to promote her identity as a former nun and to warn Protestants against the Catholic Church draws natural comparisons with ‘escaped nuns.’ These figures were common in anti-Catholic polemics and literature. During the nineteenth century, several women claimed to have escaped from convents, and made a living by writing or lecturing about the prison-like conditions and rampant immorality they osten- sibly witnessed within convent walls. While most escaped nun stories originated in North America, they also had a resonance in Britain. For instance, The awful disclosures of Maria Monk, one of the original escaped nun stories, gave an account of a woman who claimed to have escaped from a Canadian convent. Over 300,000 copies of the book were sold internationally in the twenty-five years after its publication in 1835.144 Another escaped nun named Edith O’Gorman became famous in America before embarking on a lecture series around England in 1881.145 However, Cusack did not adopt the persona of a typical escaped nun and remained sceptical of such stories. She complained privately that her American lecture series was competing against one given by a ‘so-called “escaped nun”’ who she believed to be an imposter.146 In 1894, she wrote to the Irish News and Belfast Morning News claiming that the Protestant press was boycotting her for questioning the veracity of another former nun’s story. She complained that many Protestants only wanted to hear accounts which backed up their ideas about the Catholic Church and that she was under pressure to make false statements.147 In her final biography, The story of my life, she asserted that she had never seen or heard of a nun in the modern era who was held against her will. Instead, she reported on her personal experience, and argued that unhappy women religious stayed voluntarily due to a sense of moral obligation and fear of social ostracisation.148

Conclusion Cusack died in Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, England, on 5 June 1899.149 Although she rekindled a relationship with some Sisters of St. Joseph of the Peace in the last weeks of her life, she never reconciled with the Catholic Church.150 Yet throughout her pro- fessional life she relied, directly and indirectly, on her persona of the ‘nun of Kenmare’. She spent most of her adult life in the public eye and consciously tried to exert control over how the media presented her and how she represented herself. Cusack used her expertise in education and philanthropy to justify political involvement and used common perceptions of female religious life to promote her own ideas about welfare provision and women’s issues. She fell into relative obscurity after her death, but during her lifetime navigated her way into public debates and was able to present herself as a moral authority.151 Mary Francis Cusack remained ‘the nun of Kenmare’ throughout her life. After leaving the Catholic Church, Cusack attempted to use the same strategies as before. She continued to use her personal knowledge of the structures of the Catholic Church to lend authenticity to her writing. Her conversion did not mark a signiﬁcant change in her style of writing or self-representation, but simply a diﬀerent view of the Church. Her fame followed her through her literary career, her increased politicisation and eventual conversion to Methodism. One obituary even omitted her name from its headline, announcing instead the death of ‘the nun of Kenmare’.152 The endurance of WOMEN’SHISTORYREVIEW 15 this title is telling, as it highlights how essential her religious identity was to her fame and success. It gave her the framework to examine education, philanthropy and politics and to justify her public voice and public role. Cusack was certainly exceptional as a nineteenth-century woman religious, but her religious identity is vital to understanding how she saw herself and her work.

Notes 1. This research was supported by the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership (Arts and Humanities Research Council). 2. Caitriona Clear, ‘The Limits of Female Autonomy: Nuns in Nineteenth-Century Ireland’,in Women Surviving: Studies in Irish Women’s History in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centu- ries, eds. Maria Luddy and Cliona Murphy (Dublin: Poolbeg, 1990), 45. 3. In the strict ecclesiastical sense ‘nun’ refers only to those in enclosed orders, while ‘sister’ relates to those in active congregations. This article will use the term nun in its more common, general usage, interchangeably with the general term ‘woman religious’. 4. Philomena McCarthy, The Nun of Kenmare: The True Facts (Killarney: self-published: 1989), 1; Seán Heather McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation: Margaret Anna Cusack, Sainthood, Religious Foundations and Revolution in Ireland, 1829–1899’ (PhD Dissertation: University at Albany, State University of New York, 2015): 8. 5. Mary Peckham Magray, The Transforming Power of the Nuns: Religion Power and Social Change in Ireland, 1750–1900 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 9; Emmet Larkin, ‘The Devotional Revolution in Ireland, 1850–75’, American Historical Review 77, no. 3 (June 1972): 626–44. 6. 97.9% of women religious were members of active congregations in 1864, decreasing to 95% by the end of the century (Caitriona Clear, Nuns in Nineteenth Century Ireland (Dublin & Washington DC: Gill and Macmillan, 1989), 111. 7. McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’,14–17. For instance: Irene ﬀrench Eager, The Nun of Kenmare (Cork: Mercier Press, 1970); Margaret Rose O’Neill, The Life of Mother Clare: Out from the Shadow of the Upas Tree … (Seattle: Sisters of St. Joseph of the Peace, 1990); Maria Luddy, ‘Introduction’ in Mary Francis Cusack, The Nun of Kenmare, an Auto- biography (London: Routledge,1998), v-xiii. Recent work has tended to examine Cusack in the context of nineteenth-century Catholic Ireland, for instance: Patrick Maume, ‘Margaret Cusack and Catholic-Nationalist History’,inThe Oxford History of the Irish Book Volume IV: The Irish Book in English 1800–1891 ed. James H. Murphy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 484–96; Patrick Maume, ‘Rome and Kenmare: Margaret Cusack and Ultra- montane Print Culture’,inVisual, Material and Print Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, eds. Ciara Breathnah and Catherine Lawless (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010), 98–114; Nadia Clare Smith, A “Manly Study”? Irish Women Historians, 1868–1949 (Dublin: Palgrave Press, 2006), 31–7; McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’. 8. Maria Luddy, ‘Introduction’,inThe Nun of Kenmare: An Autobiography (London: Routle- dge, 1998), v. For the sake of clarity, this paper will refer to her exclusively as Mary Francis Cusack, which was the name she assumed upon joining the Sisters of St. Clare. The endnotes will list the name under which each book was published. 9. McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’, 29. 10. Eager, Nun of Kenmare,37–8; McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’,2–3. 11. McCarthy, The Nun of Kenmare,7. 12. Stewart J. Brown, The National Churches of England, Ireland and Scotland 1801–1846 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 267–92. 13. E. R. Norman, Anti-Catholicism in Victorian England (London: Routledge, 1968), 105–9. 14. McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’,34–5. Anglican Sisterhoods grew out of the Oxford Move- ment, and reﬂected a growing trend during the period towards the foundation of female 16 B. HARRISON

only religious foundations. The first such Sisterhood was founded in Southey, England, in 1845 (Susan Mumm, Stolen Daughters, Virgin Mothers: Anglican Sisterhoods in Victorian Britain (Leicester: Bloomsbury, 2001), 3–4. 15. Mumm, Stolen Daughters, 6–7. 16. McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’,2,30–5. 17. Eager, The Nun of Kenmare, 52. 18. Magray, Transforming Power of the Nun, 14–31. 19. Luddy, ‘introduction’,v–xiv. 20. Mary Francis Cusack, Five Years in a Protestant Sisterhood and Ten Years in a Catholic Convent. An Autobiography (London: Longmans, Green, 1869). 21. Eager, The Nun of Kenmare, 66. 22. Cusack, Five Years in a Protestant Sisterhood, 173–5. 23. John Nicholas Murphy, Terra Incognita or the Convents of the United Kingdom (London: Longmans, Green & co, 1873) 312–8. ‘Religious rule’ refers to the governing documents of a given religious congregation. 24. Philomena McCarthy, The Nun of Kenmare: The True Facts (Killarney: NP, ND), 9. 25. J.R.R. Adams, ‘Swine-Tax and Eat-Him-All-Magee: The Hedge Schools and Popular Edu- cation in Ireland’, in James S. Donnelly and Kerby A. Millar, Irish popular culture, 1650– 1850 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1999), 102; Donald H. Akenson, The Irish Education Experiment: The National System of Education in the Nineteenth Century, i (London: Rou- tledge, 2012), 376. 26. Begadon, ‘Catholic Devotional Literature’, 333. 27. Luddy, ‘Introduction’, 54. 28. Philomena McCarthy, The Nun of Kenmare: The True Facts (Killarney, NP, ND), 9. 29. McCarthy, The Nun of Kenmare: The True Facts (Killarney: NP, ND), 27; Magrath, ‘Striving for Salvation’, 165–6. 30. Susan O’Brien, ‘Taylor, Frances Margaret [name in religion Mary Magdalen] (1832–1900, journalist and Roman Catholic Nun’,inOxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref: odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-48525) (2 August 2018). 31. For instance: The Stoneleighs of Stoneleigh, and Other Tales (London: Burns & Oates, 1880); Life of Father John Curtis of the Society of Jesus (Dublin: M.H. Gill & Sons, 1891); Confer- ences … with Retreats, Sermons and Notes of Spiritual Direction (London: Burns & Oates, 1896). 32. Matthew Russell, ‘Poets I have Known: VII. Mary Stanislaus MacCarthy, O.S.D.’, Irish Monthly 36, no. 420 (June 1908): 301–20. 33. McGraw, Striving for Salvation, 298–9. 34. Mary Francis Cusack, Spouse of Christ: Her Duties and Her Privileges ii (London, Dublin & Boston: Burns & Co, 1878). 35. Hynes, Knock, xiii, 243–5. 36. Dublin Weekly Nation, 11 September 1880; 25 September 1880. 37. Cusack claimed that she regained mobility in her legs upon her arrival at Knock, which she indicated had deteriorated to the point where for several years she had been unable to kneel. There is no third-party confirmation of this event, and while Cusack repeated the event in The Nun of Kenmare, suggesting she still believed it to be true after leaving her order, she did not mention it in The Story of my life. 38. M.F. Cusack, The Apparition at Knock, with the Depositions of the Witnesses Examined by the Ecclesiastical Commission appointed by His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam (London and Dublin: Burns, Oates & Co., 1880); Cusack, Three visits to Knock (1882). 39. Cusack, Three Visits to Knock, viii. 40. Saint Clare, Saint Colette, and the Poor Clares (Dublin: John F. Fowler, 1864); Meditations for Advent and Easter (Dublin: James Duffy, 1866); The Spirit of St. Gertrude; or, the Love of the Heart of Jesus to his Creatures (London: Burns, Lambert & Oates, 1866); [translation] Miraculous Cure at Assisi, Wrought before the Shrine of St. Clare, on the Feast of the Stigmata WOMEN’SHISTORYREVIEW 17

of St. Francis, Sept. 17 1866 (London: Burns, Lambert & Oates, 1867); M.F.C., An Illustrated History of Ireland: From the Earliest Period (London: Longmans, 1868); Mary Frances Cusack, Five Years in a Protestant Sisterhood; Life of St Patrick; Apostle of Ireland (London and New York: Longmans and T. Kehoe, 1869. 41. M.F.C., An Illustrated History of Ireland from the Earliest Period (London: Longmans, 1868); M.F. Cusack, An Illustrated History of Ireland from the Earliest Period (London: Longmans, 1873); M.F. Cusack, The Patriot’s History of Ireland (Dublin and Kenmare: Kenmare Pub- lications, 1869); M.F. Cusack, A History of the Irish Nation: Social, Ecclesiastical, Biographi- cal, Industrial and Antiquarian (London and Kenmare: Kenmare Publications, 1876); Mary Frances Cusack, A history of the Irish Nation: Social, Ecclesiastical, Biographical, Industrial and Antiquarian (London: Murdoch, 1877). 42. Sister Mary Francis Clare, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of God (London and Dublin: Longmans, Green & Co, 1880); Sister Mary Francis Clare, Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary (London: Burns & Co,1884); Life of St. Patrick; apostle of Ireland (Kenmare: Kenmare Publications, 1869); M.F. Cusack, The Life of St. Patrick; Apostle of Ireland (London: Long- mans, Green & Co, 1870); Sister M.F. Clare, Life of St. Patrick; Apostle of Ireland (Kenmare: Kenmare Publications, 1877); The Pilgrim’s Way to Heaven 4th edition (London, Dublin and Melbourne: Burns, Oates & Co., 1880). 43. McCarthy, The True Facts, 31, 42. 44. Wilfrid Wilberforce, The House of Burns & Oates (London: Burns & Oates, 1908), 8–13; ‘The late Mr M.H. Gill’ in Irish Monthly, vii (1879), 223–4. Cusack published over ﬁfteen editions with Burns & Co and more than ten with M.H. Gill & Son. 45. Maume, ‘Cusack and Catholic-Nationalist History’, 489. 46. For instance: M.F.C, Illustrated History of Ireland (1868); M.F. Cusack, The Student’s Manual of Irish History (London: Longmans, 1869); Cusack, Illustrated History of Ireland (London and Boston, 1873); Cusack, Life of St. Patrick (1870); Sister Mary Francis Clare, Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1880). 47. Patrick Donoghue to M.F. Cusack, 11 November 1874 (Archive of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Peace, Englewood (hereafter CSJP), Foundational papers, 3A/460); Freeman’s Journal, 1 March 1878. 48. For Instance: Sister M.F. Clare, Good Reading for Girls. Good Reading for Sundays and Fes- tivals (Kenmare and London: Burns, Oats & Co., 1877), 1–15. 49. O’Neill, Mother Clare, 49. 50. ‘The Kenmare Convent Claim’ (CSJP, foundation papers, 3A 432). 51. M.F. Cusack, Tim O’Halloran’s Choice (London, Dublin, New York and Melbourne: Burns & Co., 1877), xxxix. 52. Pilgrim’s Way, 370–80. 53. Janet A. Nolan, Ourselves Alone: Women’s Emigration from Ireland, 1885–1920 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2015), 23. 54. Advice to Irish Girls in America (New York: J.A. Mcgee, 1876), 96–100, 151–3. 55. A Nun’s Advice to Her Girls (Kenmare: Kenmare Publications, 1877); M.F. Cusack, A Nun’s Advice to Her Girls (Kenmare: Kenmare Publications, 1880), iii–iv. 56. Cusack, A Nuns Advice to Her Girls 1880), 24. 57. Catherine Alexander, Friendly Advice to Irish Mothers on Training their Children (Armagh: John McWatters, 1842). 58. Cara Delay, Irish Women and the Creation of Modern Catholicism, 1850–1950 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019), 31–8. 59. Mary Francis Cusack to Dr. Moran, 17 December ND (Dublin Diocesan Archives, Cullen Papers 40/7/xii/7). 60. M.F. Cusack, The History of the Kingdom of Kerry (London, Dublin and Boston: Longman, Green & Co. 1871), lxix–lxxxiii; Cusack, The Liberator (1872), 1–27 (end). 61. The Kingdom of Kerry was ordered by twenty-nine subscribers from England, Scotland and Wales and twenty-one from the US. It had nine Australian subscribers, one Indian and one 18 B. HARRISON

Italian (Cusack, History of the Kingdom of Kerry, lxix–lxxxiii; Cusack, The liberator (1872), 1–27 (end)). 62. Dublin Daily Nation, 22 December 1897. 63. For instance: Master Will and Won’t and Other Stories (London: Burns & Oates, 1887); Tyborne: and “Who Went Thither in the Days of Queen Elizabeth” (London: Burns & Oates, 1871). 64. W.H. Grattan Flood, ‘Annals of the Dominican Convent of St. Mary’s, Cabra’ in An Irish Quarterly Review, ii, no. 7 (September 1913): 359–60. 65. For Instance: Matthew Russell, At Home with God: Priedieu Papers on Spiritual Subjects (London: Longmans & Green, 1918); Matthew Russell 66. M.F.C. Illustrated History of Ireland (1868), cover page; Cusack, Patriot’s History of Ireland (1869), cover page. 67. Dublin Daily Nation, 22 December 1897. 68. For instance: Mary Francis Clare, The Life of Father Mathew, the People’s Soggarth Aroon (London and Dublin, Burns & Co. 1874), cover page; Sister Mary Francis Clare, Cloister Songs and Hymns for Children (London and Dublin: Burns & Co., 1881). 69. Begadon, ‘Catholic Religious Publishing’, 372. 70. Cusack, Nun of Kenmare, 67–9. 71. Cusack, Book of the Blessed Ones; Cusack, Life of St. Patrick (1877), ii; Cusack, The Pilgrim’s Way (1880); Sister Mary Francis Clare, Three Visits to Knock. With the Medical Certificates of Cures and Authentic Accounts of Different Apparitions (New York: P.J. Kennedy, 1882).; Freeman’s Journal, 29 September 1875. 72. Tralee Chronicle, 2 December 1870. 73. Freeman’s Journal, 1 March 1878. 74. Cusack, Story of My Life, 154–5. 75. M.F. Cusack to Patrick Francis Moran, 30 December 1868 (Dublin Diocesan Archive (hereafter DDA), Cullen Papers, 40/5/IV/39); M.F. Cusack to Patrick Francis Moran, 4 January 1869; Cusack to Patrick Francis Moran, 14 January 1869 (DDA, Cullen Papers, 40/5/IV/5) 76. M.F. Cusack to Patrick Francis Moran, 17 December N.D. (c. 1871) (DDA, Cullen Papers, 40/7/XII/7). 77. Cusack, Nun of Kenmare, 64–6. 78. ‘Jubilee’ in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, ix (1875), 425–9. 79. ‘Correspondence’ in Irish Ecclesiastical Record, xi (1875), 459–61. 80. Jacinta Prunty, Lady of Charity, Sister of Faith: Margaret Aylward, 1810–1889 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999), 127. 81. M.F. Cusack to Archbishop Thomas Croke, 30 November 1882 (CSJP, Foundation papers, 3A 432). 82. Cusack, Nun of Kenmare, 136–7. 83. Caitriona Clear, Nuns in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Dublin, 1987), 70. 84. Maume, ‘Rome and Kenmare’, 105. 85. McCarthy, The True Facts, 27. Following a feminist reclamation of Cusack’s legacy and growing interest in her role as a foundress after the second Vatican Council, McCarthy set out to recentre the Poor Clares in the narrative of Cusack’s life and avoid lionising her memory. As such, while her book is well researched, it at times comes off as polemical in tone. 86. Mary Teresa Lowry to [Unknown], ND (Shrine of Knock Museum, Ferguson papers, 511/257). 87. ‘The Kenmare Convent Claim’ (CSJP, Foundation Papers, 3A 432). 88. Abstract from annals of the Poor Clares, Kenmare (Shrine of Knock Museum, Ferguson Papers, 511/256). 89. Maria Luddy, ‘Women and Politics in Ireland, 1860 1918: introduction’,inThe Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing 5, eds Angela Bourke et. al. (Cork and New York: Cork University Press, 2002), 69. 90. Smith, A “Manly Study”,33–4. WOMEN’SHISTORYREVIEW 19

91. Cusack, The Illustrated History of Ireland (1875), 643. 92. McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’, 205. 93. Emmet Larkin, The Consolidation of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, 1860–70 (Dublin: Gill and MacMillan, 1987), 394–438. 94. The Irishman, 11 September 1869. West-Britonism, or being a ‘West-Brit’, is a derogatory term for an Irish person who is unduly sympathetic to the British crown or enamoured with elite British culture. 95. Maume, ‘Cusack and Catholic-nationalist history’, 491. The Young Irelanders were a nationalist movement active in the mid-nineteenth century who advocated for violent resist- ance to British rule. Following a failed rebellion in 1848, its leaders were exiled (Alvin Jackson, Ireland, 17980–1998 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), 48–58). 96. Mary Francis Cusack, The Student’s Manual of Irish History (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1870). 97. The Irishman, 9 May 1868; Dublin Evening post 11 May 1868; Dublin Weekly Nation, 16 May 1868; Flag of Ireland, 17 January 1874. 98. Cusack, The Liberator (Kenmare, 1872); M.F. Cusack, The Speeches and Public Letters of the Liberator (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill, 1875). 99. M.F. Cusack to Dr. Moran, 17 December ND (DDA, Cullen papers, 40/7/xii/7). Her emphasis. 100. Emmet Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Home Rule movement in Ireland, 1870– 1874 (Dublin: Gill & MacMillan, 1990), xxviii–xix. 101. Cusack, The Liberator, xi-xiii. Eighty-five of the 1,022 subscribers listed their hometown as being outside of Ireland. 102. M.F. Cusack, The Liberator: His Life & Times, Political, Social and Religious (Kenmare: Kenmare Publications, 1872); M.F. Cusack, Daniel O’Connell, the liberator. His Times—Pol- itical, Social and Religious (New York: D.J. Sadlier & Co., 1872). 103. Cusack, The Liberator,1–24 (end). 104. M.F. Cusack, Women’s Work in Modern Society (Kenmare: Kenmare Publications, 1872). 105. Luddy ‘Women and Politics’,70–1. 106. Luddy ‘ Women and Politics’,70–1; McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’, iv, 148–9. 107. Cusack, Women’s Work (1872), iv. 108. By 1873, when Cusack’s fame began to become established, one fifth of schools funded by the Irish Board of Education were taught by women religious. (Murphy, Terra Incognita, 598). 109. Cusack, Woman’s Work, 187. 110. Ely M. Janis, A Greater Ireland: The Land League and Transatlantic Nationalism in Gilded Age America (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015), 25–7. 111. Eager, Nun of Kenmare, 90–2. 112. In 1840, eighty percent of convents’ charitable output was focused primarily on the poor. Although the Poor Clares did not traditionally involve themselves in poor relief, the Irish Poor Clares had received dispensations from the Holy See to do so (Clear, Nuns in Nine- teenth-Century Ireland, 101; Murphy, Terra Incognita, 95). 113. The Irishman 27 September 1879. 114. Dublin Weekly Nation, 22 November 1879; Freeman’s Journal, 8 January 1880; Freeman’s Journal, 20 February 1880. 115. M.F. Cusack, The Present Case of Ireland Plainly Stated, a Plea for My People and for My Race (Dublin: M.H. Gill & Son, 1881). 116. Anna Parnell ‘The Land League: Tale of a Great Shame’ in Field Day Anthology of Irish writing, 79. 117. Emmet Larkin, The Roman Catholic Church and the Creation of the Modern Irish State, 1878–1886 (Dublin and Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1975), 24–5. This refers to the stance of the Irish hierarchy in late 1880, when Cusack was finishing her proofs for The case of Ireland (Daniel McCarthy to M.F. Cusack, 27 Dec, 1880 (SJP, Foun- dation Papers, 3A 435)). 20 B. HARRISON

118. M.F. Cusack, Case of Ireland,1–4. 119. Cusack, Case of Ireland, 255–70. 120. Catherine Ferguson, Margaret Anna Cusack (the nun of Kenmare) Knock, November 1881– 1883 (Warrenpoint: NP, 2008). 121. Cusack, Nun of Kenmare, 177–28. 122. M.F. Cusack to Mother Evangelista, 9 December 1883. Transcribed by J. Ward (original unavailable) (CSJP, Foundation Papers, 3A 410) 123. McGraw, Striving for Salvation, 5–6. 124. Cusack, Nun of Kenmare, 377–87; McGraw, ‘Striving for salvation’, 103. 125. Cusack, Nun of Kenmare, 44–6. 126. Cusack, Nun of Kenmare, iii–x. 127. McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’,7. 128. For instance, see Ferguson, Margaret Anna Cusack; McCarthy, The True Facts, 44–6; McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation, 183–6. McGraw notes that like Cusack, Catherine McAuley also faced ﬁerce ecclesiastical opposition, though in her case she acquiesced and found the Sisters of Mercy as a result. 129. McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’, 6, 168–9. 130. Eager, Nun of Kenmare, 98. 131. Ferguson, Margaret Anna Cusack, 55. 132. Ferguson, Margaret Anna Cusack, 87. 133. McCarthy, Margaret Anna Cusack, 87; McGraw, ‘Striving for Salvation’, 158. 134. Ferguson, Margaret Anna Cusack, 48. 135. Why I became a Sister of the Peace (1884) (CSJP, Foundation Papers, 3A 316). 136. Murphy, Terra Incognita, 212–8. 137. Ibid., iii–vii. 138. M.F. Cusack to Mr Lea, ND (Shrine of Knock Museum, Ferguson Papers, 251/375); The Christian World, 5 January 1893. 139. Eager, Nun of Kenmare, 203; M.F. Cusack to Henry Charles Lea, 10 March ND (Shrine of Knock Museum, Ferguson Papers, 251/370) 140. Cusack, Story of my life, i. 141. M.F. Cusack, Life inside the Church of Rome, 7–14. 142. Dominic Janes, ‘When ‘Perverts’ were Religious: The Protestant Sexualisation of Ascetism in Nineteenth-Century Britain, India and Ireland’,inCultural and Social History xi, no. 3 (2014): 425. 143. For instance, M.F. Cusack, The Black Pope (London: Marshal, Russell & Company, 1896); Cusack, Story of My Life. 144. Susan Mumm, ‘Making Space, Taking Space: Spatial Discomfort, Gender and Victorian Religion’,inVictorian Space(s) Leeds Centre Working Papers in Victorian Studies, ed. Karen Sayer, viii (Leeds, 2006), 4. 145. Rene Kollar, A Foreign and Wicked Institution? The Campaign against Convents in Victorian England (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2011), 88–104. 146. M.F. Cusack to Lea, 6 May ND (c. 1890) (Shrine of Knock Museum, Ferguson Papers, 251/369). 147. Irish News and Belfast Morning News, 1 February 1894. 148. Cusack, Story of My Life, 99. 149. Eager, Nun of Kenmare, 213. 150. Mother St. John to Mr Perry, 15 June 1899; Sr Louis de Gonzaga Fisher to Sr Bonaventure, 7 September 1901 (Shrine of Knock Museum, Ferguson Papers, 512/262-263). 151. Eager, Nun of Kenmare, 11. 152. Kerry Evening Post, 14 June 1899.

Disclosure statement No potential conﬂict of interest was reported by the author(s). WOMEN’SHISTORYREVIEW 21

Notes on contributor Bridget Harrison graduated from her AHRC-funded PhD at Queen’s University Belfast in 2020. Her thesis, entitled ‘Roman Catholic women religious in Ireland, 1849–1907: Self representations and public perceptions’, used a series of case studies to explore how representations of religious life interacted with lay femininity and the priorities of the Catholic Church. She has an article entitled ‘Factory and workshop legislation and convent laundries 1895-1907: campaigning for a Catholic exception’ in the November 2021 issue of Irish Historical Studies. Her research interests include Irish social and cultural history and the history of gender and religion.

ORCID Bridget Harrison http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4003-2165