Historic Links with the Sisters of Mercy

Many generous people have in the past contributed handsomely to the maintenance of the social and religious fabric of our ancient town.  Some are remembered, even if only by dint of research into long forgotten archives and minutiae of the previous century.  Many however, are the acts of generosity which were never recorded, or if so have since languished in the forgotten layers of our local history.

Who for instance was Ann Fitzgerald of Geraldine who played a major part in establishing a Mercy Convent in Athy in 1852?  She was probably a daughter of Colonel Fitzgerald of Geraldine House, who some decades previously had built the first school premises for the poor children of Athy on part of what was commonage of Clonmullin.  Other generous benefactors, particularly of religious institutions in Athy, were Mrs. Goold and her daughter of Leinster Street.  Indeed, if memory serves me right, the present Parish Priest’s house was gifted to the church authorities by Miss Goold.  She also donated sufficient funds in 1877 to guarantee the employment of a fourth teacher in the local Christian Brothers School and to ensure that the classics continued to be taught in the school. 

Patrick Commins is recorded as having given significant financial help to the Catholic Church in Athy in the middle of the 19^th century.  He was originally a clerk in Minch’s and in 1841 he married Mary Moran of Leighlinbridge, Carlow.  She was a sister of Patrick Francis Moran who was created a Cardinal of the Catholic Church in 1885. 

Commins had a farm out the Ballylinan road and is noted as having a connection with the canal company, but in what capacity I cannot say.  His relationship with Cardinal Moran is of interest because Moran was in turn the nephew of Cardinal Paul Cullen who was from Ballitore.  Commins father Hugh was married twice.  The first time to Elizabeth Murphy and they had one daughter, Alicia, who was to be the mother of a future Cardinal, Patrick Moran.  Commins second wife was Mary Maher of Donore and Paul Cullen, the first Cardinal in the Irish Church, was one of their 15 children.

Mary Maher was the brother of Patrick Maher of Kilrush and William Maher of Burtown, or Birtown as it was known in the 19^th century.  The Kilrush farmer, Patrick Maher, was perhaps Athy’s greatest ever benefactor insofar as he made many donations over many years to the local Catholic Church as well as to the Sisters of Mercy Convent and the Christian Brothers School in Athy.  One of his daughters was Sister Teresa Maher who was appointed first Superior of the Athy Convent in 1855.  Patrick Maher’s wife was Louise Dillon, whose sister Mary Dillon was married to Pat Lalor of Tenakill.  Pat and Mary Lalor had 11 children, the eldest of which was James Fintan Lalor.  Pat Lalor was elected as an M.P. for Queens county, as Laois was then called, in 1832 and he supported Daniel O’Connell during the repeal of the Union Campaign.  However, Pat Lalor’s fame was eclipsed by that of his eldest son James Fintan Lalor and a younger son, Peter Lalor, both of whom achieved national recognition which has endured to this day.

James Fintan Lalor who died in 1849, aged 42 years, is remembered in Irish history as a land agitator who was much influenced by William Conner of Inch, Athy.  Both were deeply involved in seeking land reform and Lalor’s influence in particular had a profound effect on the Young Ireland movement and later still on Michael Davitt and the Land League Movement.  His brother Peter Lalor emigrated to Australia and there he lead the insurgent miners at the Eureka stockade in December 1854 which precipitated the Victorian Constitutional Reforms of the following year.

The ties between the Lalors of Tenakill and the Mahers of Kilrush extended beyond the Dillon sisters who had married into both households.  Pat Lalor, M.P. for Queens County and Daniel O’Connell’s faithful supporter shared with Patrick Maher an unswerving refusal to pay tithes for the support of the established church.  On several occasions the Maher’s cattle were seized from his Kilrush fields and driven to markets where they were sold to satisfy the unpaid tithes.  We are told that on one such occasion when 25 of Lalor’s sheep were seized, bailiffs drove them all the way to Dublin as no one would deal with them in Laois or Kildare.  In Dublin they fared little better and the sheep were eventually shipped to Liverpool.  There one of the leading livestock firms was Vendon and Cullen, the Cullen being a nephew of Patrick Maher of Kilrush so that the bailiff’s plans to sell the sheep were again thwarted. 

Patrick Maher was a man with great personal connections, not only in terms of Irish national politics but also as regards the 19^th century Catholic church.  His nephew was the Archbishop of Dublin and Irelands’ first Cardinal, while another relation was Cardinal Moran of Sydney.  Three of his daughters were members of the Sisters of Mercy, while his brother in law was the famous Fr. James Maher, Parish Priest of Carlow Graigue. 

Patrick Maher, Miss Goold, Ann Fitzgerald and Patrick Commins are just some of those who in the 19^th century proved themselves generous benefactors of Athy and many of its Catholic institutions.  One would like to know more of these men and women who for the most part are forgotten by those who live in Athy today.

Advertisers in the Sisters of Mercy Year Book 1953/'54

 

The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Athy on 10^th October 1852 to take charge of the newly built convent of St. Michael’s.  The convent was constructed between 1843 and 1852 on a site adjoining the Parish Church.  The foundation stone was laid by the Parish Priest of Castledermot, Fr. Dunne, two years before the start of the Great Famine.  Over the years the Sisters of Mercy caused a number of booklets to be published including a series of annual Year Books in the 1950s.  The Year Books were supported by local business people with a variety of advertisements and perusing the 1953/’54 year book provides a fascinating insight into the changes in the local business world over the last 63 years. 

‘Tosh’ Doyle advertised cars for hire from 15 Patrick’s Avenue, while he undertook cycle repairs at Meeting Lane.  O’Rourke Glynns, with the telephone number Athy 45, had a wide range of items for sale from ices and fruits to stationery, toys and dolls.  I was intrigued by the claim that O’Rourke Glynn’s bread was ‘often buttered but never bettered’ as I don’t recall O’Rourke Glynns having any bread making facilities.  Martin Brophy at 27 Duke Street operated one of the many family grocery businesses in Athy, as well as being a tea, wine and spirit merchant.  S. O’Brien of the Square was similarly engaged, as was M. O’Brien of the Nags Head Inn.  J.P. Dillons of Barrow Quay proudly claimed to be a ‘shop with a growing reputation’ and in addition to being a green grocer its proprietor was also a poulterer.  J. O’Brien of the Railway Bar was another grocer and spirit merchant who also offered trade in ‘coal, corn, linseed meal and general feeding stuffs’. 

Something different was offered by Candys of 15 Leinster St. who claimed to stock ‘everything from a needle to an anchor’.  At 4 Duke Street pork butcher and sausage maker E. Herterich offered ‘cooked meats and puddings’ guaranteeing ‘fresh daily, finest quality only.’  Another car hire business was operated at 5 Meeting Lane by Peter Fitzsimons, while not too far away at 42 Leinster Street M. O’Connor, M.P.S.I. advertised ‘pure medical, toilet and veterinary preparations and high-class cosmetics.’ 

An interesting advertisement for M.A. James of 12 Duke Street offered a printing service for wedding invitations, while also acting as an agent for Allied Libraries Limited.  J.W. Kehoe at Offaly Street declared his business motto as ‘courtesy, service, value’ while advertising his tea, wine, spirit and coal business.  M. Bradley carried on business as a newsagent, stationer and tobacconist at 34 Duke Street, while just up the road at William Street Purcell Bros. were family grocers and butter exporters.  The enterprising brothers also carried on a butchering business at Duke Street.

J.J. Stafford of 43 Duke Street had a radio and electrical shop offering sales, service and repairs.  For your fresh daily milk you could rely on Floods of Stanhope Street who also traded in meal and bran, as well as hardware goods.  One advertiser whom I cannot remember was Cash of 62 Leinster St. who offered sweets, cigarettes, confectionary and minerals.  Two doors away at No. 60 was the sweet and confectionery shop advertised under the name ‘Bergin’ without any elaboration on the name.

Two of the biggest employers on the towns main street were Duthie Large Ltd. and Industrial Vehicles (Ireland) Ltd.  The former as agricultural and water engineers offered for sale cars, trucks, tractors and cycles.  Their business enterprise also extended to offering manures and seeds with hardware and radio repairs.  The I.V.I., as it was commonly known, had a Morris car dealership and were also dealers for McCormick International Tractors covering the counties of Kildare and Carlow.  No mention was made of its foundry work but in addition to car, truck and tractor repairs it offered ‘a petrol service from 8.30 a.m. in the morning’.  Michael Finn advertised his garage at Woodstock offering repairs, sales, battery charging and a ‘filling station’.  Who remembers the Vogue Beauty Parlour at 11 William Street, operated by Rose Cullen who offered amongst other services ‘Devon Cold Wave Perms?’  Tullys will be remembered as travel agents, but in 1954 they were general drapers.  Another advertiser was Michael Kelly of 17 Leinster Street who in addition to being a tea, wine and spirit merchant was also a merchant in timber, iron and seeds.  

The change in the shopping landscape of Athy is evidenced in the disappearance of many of the businesses advertised 63 years ago.  Amongst those businesses still with us are Shaws, Doyles of Woodstock St., Clancys, O’Briens of the Nags Head Inn and O’Briens of Emily Square.  Even the Sisters of Mercy Convent has been transformed into a hotel (now temporarily vacant), while the town of Athy welcomes new businesses as the old gives way to the new.

 

Sisters of Mercy and Athy Workhouse

On 24^th October 1873 the Sisters of Mercy took charge of the hospital in Athy’s workhouse.  In the previous year six nuns from the local convent travelled to Callan in County Kilkenny at the invitation of Dr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory, to open a Convent of Mercy in that town.  It was a period of great activity within the local Mercy community, and this was reaffirmed in the number of new entrants to the Athy Convent, of which there were five in 1873. 

Just over ten years previously the Sisters of Mercy in Athy had taken up the invitation of Bishop Quinn of Queensland, Australia and that of his brother, Bishop Quinn of Bathurst, Australia to receive and train novices for the Australian Missions.  The invitation came through their other brother, Canon Quinn, who was then Parish Priest of St. Michael’s, Athy.  The Athy based noviciate for the training of novices for the Brisbane Diocese continued in operation until 1868 when the last of the young nuns and postulants left for Australia. 

Even while the Athy Sisters of Mercy were involved in setting up the Mission to Brisbane, they were also establishing a convent in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow which opened in 1865.  Just a year later an outbreak of cholera in Arklow required the assistance of nuns from the newly opened convent in Rathdrum and from the Athy convent to nurse the stricken victims.

Nearer to home Elizabeth Silke, who was appointed matron of the local workhouse in 1867, was responsible for looking after the female inmates in the Workhouse Infirmary.  From the very start workhouse inmates were very strictly segregated.  Men were separated from women and both were kept apart from their children.  The hardship and distress this caused the families who entered the Workhouse can be readily imagined.

The Sisters of Mercy who had established a convent in the town in 1851, just seven years after the Workhouse opened, began to visit patients in the Workhouse Infirmary each Sunday afternoon.  The benefit of the Sisters of Mercy in nursing situations was already well established following the Orders involvement in tending to the sick and wounded during the Crimean War.  The Athy Board of Guardians who were responsible for the day to day running of the Workhouse made a formal approach to the Sisters of Mercy seeking their agreement to take over the running of the Infirmary.  Sister Mary Teresa Maher, a niece of Dr. Cullen, the Archbishop of Dublin and a native of Kilrush, Athy, was the Convent Superior and she consulted with the Archbishop on the issue.  Permission was granted by the Archbishop on condition that the nuns in the Workhouse Infirmary would have daily Mass and also a suitable residence which was not connected with the hospital wards.  The Board of Guardians agreed to the Archbishop’s terms and arranged for the provision of a convent and the payment of £20 per year for a Catholic chaplain to say daily Mass.

Three Sisters of Mercy from the local convent took up duty on 24^th October 1873 and gave their new residence and the hospital of which they were now in charge the name “St. Vincent’s”.  Miss Costelloe, who up to then had tended to the needs of the female patients in the Workhouse Infirmary, was transferred to take charge of the nearby Fever Hospital. 

When I was asked by the Eastern Health Board in 1994 to write a brief history of St. Vincent’s Hospital I did so realising that the brevity of the work owed more to the lack of documentation then available than to any reluctance on my part to tell the story in some detail.  Unfortunately the same situation still applies as all of the Workhouse records were destroyed some years ago.  We do not know the names of the first three Sisters of Mercy who made the short journey from the local convent to the Workhouse 132 years ago.  The names of all the nuns who served in the Hospital since 1873 deserved to be recorded, but this will be a very difficult task given the paucity of original records.

I commenced this Eye on the Past with a short account of the activities of the Sisters of Mercy from the Athy Convent over the ten years prior to 1873.  The Convent of Mercy is no more and even as I write the involvement of the Sisters of Mercy in St. Vincent’s Hospital is about to end.  Presently four nuns occupy the building designated as their convent in the grounds of the hospital.  Opened and built in 1975 as a purpose built convent, it is to be closed in May of this year, thereby bringing to an end the Sisters of Mercy involvement in what was originally the Workhouse, later the County Home and today St. Vincent’s Hospital.  Sr. Peg Rice was the last Sister of Mercy to fill the office of Matron of St. Vincent’s Hospital.  She had replaced Sr. Dominic who in turn had replaced Sr. Vincent in 1957 and before her Sr. Angela had been Matron.

The Sisters of Mercy link with the hospital is just one year longer than that of the O’Neill’s, successive generations of whom have served as medical officers to the hospital.  The first appointed was Dr. P.L. O’Neill who succeeded Dr. Thomas Kynsey who died in 1874.  Dr. O’Neill resigned in 1897 and was replaced by his son, Dr. Jeremiah, and when he retired 55 years later his replacement was his own son, Dr. Joe O’Neill.  When Dr. Joe retired in 1991 he was replaced by his son and great grandson of the first Dr. O’Neill, the current medical officer, Dr. Giles O’Neill.  Theirs is a remarkable record, as is that of the Sisters of Mercy who this year will bring to an end their involvement with St. Vincent’s Hospital, Athy.  The gratitude of the local community of Athy and district must go to the many unidentified Sisters of Mercy who over the period of 132 years tended to the needs of the sick, the homeless and the aged within St. Vincent’s Hospital, the County Home and the Workhouse.

Finally I want to send congratulations to someone whom I first set eyes on when she was a small fragile bundle new to the world.  Over the years I have watched her grow and develop, firstly as a young girl with considerable charm and thoughtfulness, and in recent years as a young women who added to those endearing qualities a measure of intelligent enquiry which has outgrown my own abilities.  Many years of study commenced with a B.A. in Trinity College, an M.A. in York University and involved some time in Universities in Boston and in St. Petersburg.  The last period of study was spent in Trinity College and resulted in the writing of an extensive thesis on the Irish writer, Flann O’Brien and the award of a Doctorate.  Congratulations to my youngest daughter Carol, or should I write Dr. Carol Taaffe!

Sisters of Mercy Athy and Sr. Rita Cranny

‘The idea of a convent in Athy originated with Miss Goold of Leinster Street who won the support of Fr. Patrick Byrne C.C., Mrs. Fitzgerald of Geraldine House and her daughter Ann Fitzgerald.’  These opening lines in the Annals of the Sisters of Mercy Athy were penned many years later by Fr. Thomas Greene C.C.  He noted that the sudden death of Fr. Byrne, followed soon afterwards by the passing of Ann Fitzgerald, left the matter in abeyance.  However, Ann Fitzgerald left £100 in her Will for the endowment of a local convent, following which her mother, the widow of Colonel Fitzgerald, offered the sum of £50 for the same purpose.  Patrick Maher of Kilrush similarly offered £50.  The availability of these funds prompted the parishioners of St. Michael’s Athy to convene a meeting in the Parish Church in the spring of 1843 to consider ways and means of advancing the idea first put forward by Miss Goold several years previously. 

The enthusiastic support for a convent and more particularly a convent school in Athy resulted in arrangements for a weekly collection to be taken up in the main streets of the town every Saturday night.  When Fr. Thomas Greene came to Athy on 12^th May 1843 he found a very efficient collection system in place, with £150 already collected.  The first stone of the new convent was laid in August 1844 by Reverend Laurence Dunne, P.P. of Castledermot.  Fr. Greene’s written account then refers to the ‘dreadful distress then prevalent’ which resulted in the discontinuance of the weekly collection at a time when almost £1,400 had been spent on a new convent building.  The ‘dreadful distress’ referred to in Fr. Greene’s note was of course the famine which started with the failure of the potato crop in 1845 and which was to continue until 1848 and beyond for many families.

The weekly collection resumed in 1848 when the worst of the Famine conditions had improved, but as Fr. Greene noted, ‘the old staff of collectors had been broken up and their subscribers had gone to America’.  The principal organiser of the collection was Mr. Thomas Fegan of Market Square (now Emily Square) and his efforts and those of his voluntary workers accounted for a substantial amount of the £2,035 which was incurred in building and fitting out the convent between August 1844 and December 1852. 

The convent closed in May 2000 and during its 148 years it received upward of 144 or more young women who joined the Sisters of Mercy.  On entering, postulants wore a white bonnet for the first six months and a white veil for the next two and a half years before taking their first vows three years later.  At the end of six years in the Convent perpetual vows were taken.  Postulants and nuns followed the same daily routine which started with a bell ringing out at 5.25 a.m. followed by Matins and Lauds, then private meditation for 40 minutes and Mass.  Silence was maintained at all times other than during the 45 minute recreation period late in the afternoon.  Evening Vespers was followed by 30 minutes of spiritual reading in the Convent Chapel, concluding after a further short period of recreation with night prayers and the ‘great silence’.

In 1938 Rita Cranny from Ballylinan entered the local Convent of Mercy.  She made her triennial vows on 11^th February 1941 and her perpetual vows as Sr. Rita three years later.  Like her fellow sisters she dedicated herself to the religious life and in doing so joined a religious community committed to providing education, social care and health care to the wider community of south Kildare. 

The religious orders were an important part of Irish life as far back as the early decades of the 19^th century.  Nowadays Irish Society is a more secular society and the religious orders, especially the female orders, are downsizing to the extent that in a few years time many will have disappeared.  Within our local community we are witnessing the gradual but inevitable withering of that wonderful religious order which for almost 150 years has been an enriching presence in this area. 

Last week Sr. Rita Cranny died aged 95 years and with her death is closed another chapter in the life of the Sisters of Mercy congregation in Athy.  We are indebted to Sr. Rita and her religious colleagues for their charitable work and their contribution to education and health care, first commenced in the dark days which followed the Great Famine.  Athy has changed enormously since those early days and much of those changes are due in no small measure to the educational opportunities afforded by successive Sisters of Mercy to the young people of this area.

The involvement of the Sisters of Mercy and indeed that of the Christian Brothers in the education of the Irish people played a vital part in the resurgence of this country and the recovery of national pride which underpinned the events of the early decades of the 20^th century.  Now that we are about to embark over the next few years commemorating the centenary of those events I hope we will remember the part played by Sr. Rita Cranny and past generations of the Sisters of Mercy in nurturing and instilling the national pride which helped give this country the freedom it enjoys today.

Sr. Peig Rice and the Sisters of Mercy

The haunting Latin verse, Salve Regina, filled the still air as we stood by the grave of Sr. Peig Rice.  Wednesday afternoon of a mid May day saw her family relations, her community sisters and local townspeople come together to remember yet another Sister of Mercy who had passed from us.  The remaining elderly Sisters of Mercy who once championed the cause of education and nursed the sick and ageing in Athy stood or sat by the graveside of their departed sister as they raised their voices to the heavens.

‘Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae:

Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.

Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Hevae.

Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes

in hac lacrimarum valle.

Eia ergo, Advocata nostra,

illos tuos misericordes oculos

ad nos converte.

Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,

nobis, post hos exsilium ostende.

O clemens: O pia: O dulcis

Virgo Maria.’

Those same words have been sung on countless occasions since the first member of the Sisters of Mercy congregation in Athy died in 1866.  She was a young postulant who had entered the convent with her two sisters on 8^th November 1865.  As the new community, founded just 14 years previously, had no cemetery she was buried in Barrowhouse graveyard.  Sadly, one of her own sisters who had entered the convent with her died a year later and she was buried in the garden of the Sisters of Mercy convent.  The remains of the young postulant were exhumed from the Barrowhouse cemetery and placed beside those of her sister.  The two Ryan sisters were the first burials from amongst the many Sisters of Mercy who graced the corridors of Athy Convent of Mercy over the years.

Sister Peig Rice entered Athy’s Convent of Mercy on 23^rd September 1958.  She was received during Easter week and being proud of her Kilkenny background received the name of the Kilkenny patron saint, St. Canice.  She later reverted to using the name Sr. Peig.  It was not very common for 23 year olds to enter convents in those days but Peig Rice had spent some time in St. Martha’s in Navan training to be a poultry instructress, where she enjoyed the companionship of fellow students, some of whom attended her funeral on Wednesday.  I believe Peig may have decided to forego poultry instructing for the more demanding and rewarding role of a nurse.  Trained in the Mater Hospital Dublin she would later spend a year in St. Finbarr’s Hospital in Cork from where she obtained her CMB before returning to St. Vincent’s Hospital, Athy on 1^st July 1962.  There she worked under the then Matron, Sr. Dominic, whom she would replace on Sr. Dominic’s retirement in March 1981. 

The Sisters of Mercy first took charge of the Workhouse Hospital in Athy on 24^th October 1873 when three sisters from the local Convent came to live in a small building provided for them which they called St. Vincent’s.  The Matron of the Union was still a lay person, the position being held in 1873 by Miss Lindsay.  When the Union Hospital became a County Home on 1^st May 1922 Sr. Angela Devereux became Matron and the entire complex was renamed St. Vincent’s.  Following Sr. Angela’s death in 1943 Sr. Vincent Lalor was appointed Matron, a position she held for the next 14 years.  Sr. Dominic was Matron from 1957 to 1981 when Sr. Peig Rice took over the onerous position.  Sr. Peig retired as Matron in December 1996 and involved herself in the local Care of the Elderly Committee and in developing the Alzheimer’s unit in the hospital.

The funeral mass for Sr. Peig was a celebration of thanksgiving for her life, which like her sisters in religion was spent in the service of others.  I am always reminded on the passing of a Sister of Mercy of how the teaching ministry of that Order empowered young Irish women to take charge of their lives and gave them a new vision of their roles in Irish society.  In the same way the caring and nursing ministry which formed a large part of Sr. Peig’s life in the Sisters of Mercy benefitted several generations from Athy and those parts of County Kildare served by St. Vincent’s Hospital.

The contribution of the Sisters of Mercy to the social fabric of our local community cannot be overestimated and the passing of a respected sister such as Sr. Peig brings sharply into focus how much we as a community are indebted to the followers of the Venerable Catherine McAuley who first came to Athy 160 years ago.