|
The origin of the Cabra [Ireland] Dominican Congregation dates from the seventeenth century in Galway. The story of the Galway Dominican women has been written by Sr. Rose O'Neill of Taylor's Hill: A Rich Inheritance, published in Galway in 1994. The following is a resume of the story of a group of eight nuns who left Galway in 1717 to found a convent in Dublin and whose successors eventually settled in 1819 in Cabra on the north side of the city.
Life was not easy for religious in the west of Ireland in the early
days of the eighteenth century. Periodic rumours of an invasion of
Ireland by the followers of the Stuarts was unsettling for the
government in Dublin. If an invasion were to take place, the west or
south coasts would be the more likely places for Spanish or French
supporters to land. Whenever this danger threatened, the authorities
clamped down on anyone suspected of favouring the Stuart cause. All
catholics, religious included, were suspect and in the west were
frequently subjected to harassment, eviction and in the case of the
priests, imprisonment and transportation. The Dominican nuns had been
frequently evicted from their convent. This was the climate in which
the Galway Dominicans were trying to lead their religious lives. Mary
Bellew, a native of Barmeath Co. Louth, and seven others of the Galway
community settled in Channel Row, (present-day North Brunswick
Street). They were supported by the Provincial, Fr. Hugh Callanan and
the archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Edward Byrne in this move. Their hope was
that Dublin would be a safer place for them. The group were given the
convent which had been formerly used by the Benedictines and later by
the Poor Clares.
Channel Row
Mary Bellew and her companions settled down in their new home and from
an early date opened a boarding school for the daughters of the
catholic landed gentry. They also opened a guest house for ladies of
means who would be "parlour boarders" paying a fee to the nuns for
their board and lodgings. The names of these ladies are recorded in the
account books and are proof that there were many catholic families who
managed to keep their land and money in spite of the penal laws and the
dispossession of many landowners. From the convent account books of the
time, it is clear that the nuns were very dependent on their own
families' patronage; this they did by sending their daughters to the
school. The family names of the community members, the pupils and the
parlour boarders were in many cases the same. The Bellews, Brownes,
Dillons, Nugents, Rices, Reillys, and many others appear in the account
books as nuns, pupils and parlour boarders.
Dominican community life was regular and strictly observed. The nuns
recorded their life-style through the account books and evidence that
the solemn celebration of Mass, and the Divine Office, together with
enclosure, and regular life with early rising were strictly observed.
Visitation by the Dominican Provincial is recorded every three years
and the convent boarding school was frequently mentioned in the
newspapers of the time. Channel Row Convent or "nunnery" as it was
called, was famed for the splendour of its liturgical functions. Some
protestants attended to hear the Italian musicians who helped "make the
voices of the Holy Sisters more melodious."
Unfortunately as the eighteenth century came to a close, the economy of
the country was not in good shape, especially for the catholic gentry
on whom the nuns depended so much. The boarding school numbers
decreased dramatically, the numbers in the community decreased also and
those who were left were now aged and in bad health. To make matters
not only worse but dire, the lease of their house ran out.
Move to Clontarf
The remaining three Sisters, Eliza Byrne, Lydia Wall and Brigid Strong
moved to Vernon Avenue, Clontarf where in 1808, they bravely tried to
run both a boarding and day school and establish Dominican life once
more. From the beginning in Clontarf, life was a struggle and by 1819
the community was again reduced in numbers. This time five Sisters
survived. Sister Anne Columba Maher was to lead the little group to
another house and another attempt to have Dominican women re-establish
themselves in Dublin. This time a house was bought for them in Cabra.
Cabra
Cabra, after some years of hardship and poverty, eventually became a
flourishing community with a boarding school and a "poor school". In
the course of the nineteenth century convents were established in Sion
Hill, Dun Laoghaire, Belfast and the call of the missions sent Sisters
to New Orleans, Capetown, and Adelaide. Dominican life continues not
only in Cabra today but also in these far-flung places thanks
especially to Julia Browne and Mary Lynch of the Galway community who
braved the persecution of the penal times, to Mary Bellew and her seven
companions who came from Galway to Channel Row. Eliza Byrne, Lydia Wall
and Brigid Strong moved from Channel Row to Clontarf and kept the flame
alight; the last links in that chain of pioneering women were Anne
Columba Maher, Eliza Byrne, Lydia Wall, Maria Dalton and Catherine
Dillon who had the courage to set out once again from Clontarf and
settle in Cabra.
O spem miram, quam dedisti mortis hora te flentibus,
dum post mortem promisisti, te profuturum fratribus.
Imple Pater, qoud dixisti, nos tuis juvans precibus.
Sr Máire Kealy, OP
|
Who Are We 
