One hundred and eighty years ago, the Sisters of Mercy came to Galway for the first time, to a house in Lombard Street, to devote themselves to works of mercy among the poor. The great Catherine McAuley was one of the first three nuns to come here, the others being Mother M Teresa White and Mother N Catherine Leahy.
The following year, with the help of Fr Peter Daly, they bought Joyce’s Distillery and Mill House together with a dwelling house and offices on St Stephen’s Island. They converted these and opened a school there in the 1850s and called it St Vincent’s Academy. They were very busy during the Great Famine and ran a soup kitchen in St Vincent’s, another in Bohermore, and one in Bushypark. Some of the sisters went to work in the workhouse hospital, later in the County Infirmary, and the old Central Hospital.
In their annals, you will find the following: “They interpreted works of mercy broadly and the Sisters provided for the instruction of the ignorant of every class, and the comfort and relief of the sick, and the enlightenment and consolation of inmates of prisons and poorhouses. Instructing adults was a great part of their work.”
In 1875, they bought a vacant site on the other side of St Francis Street and built a primary school there. Nora Barnacle went to school there, and Pádraic Ó Conaire taught there, his aunt Sister Magdalen Conroy being a member of the community.
Our photograph today is of some other pupils who were there in sixth class on October 20, 1948. Those we have been able to name include, back row, left to right: Judy Grealish, Water Lane; _____; Una Grealish, Shantalla; Teresa Roche, Forster Street; Eleanor Creavin, St Francis’ Lane; Sally Clune; _____; Mary Small (? ); Mary Kelly, Bohermore; Sally Cunningham, St Patrick’s Avenue. Middle row: Patsy Horan, Prospect Hill; Myra Madden, Prospect Hill; Eileen McCarthy, Renmore Barracks; Betty Noonan, Abbeygate Street; Della Hopkins, Mary Street; Bridie Ryan; Mary Folan, Claddagh; Mary O’Malley; Una Molloy, Castlegar.
Next row: Mary Scully; Helen McDonnell, Salthill; Helen Spellman, Forster Street; ___ Fox, Castlegar; Ann Higgins, Newcastle; Martha ___, Woodquay; Chris Fleming, Prospect Hill. Front row: ___ O’Toole, Newcastle (? ); Peggy Ridge, Renmore Barracks; Eileen ___, Suckeen; Bernie Ward, Abbey Lane; Mary Flaherty, Eyre Street; Bernadette Fleming, Prospect Hill; Lucy Carter, Canal Road; Mary Glynn, St Bridget’s Place; and Bernadette Cottingham, Claddagh.
Sister Alphonsus was their (great ) teacher and Sister Vincent was the principal at the time. If you can fill in any of the gaps in our list of names, we would be grateful.
