Nano Nagle - The Beginnings of Nano's Irish Activity

The Beginnings of Nano's Irish Activity

Nano therefore returned to Ireland to live with her brother Joseph and his wife in Cork. There, in defiance of the laws which put a price on the head of a Catholic teacher, she began to devote her energies to the education of the poor girls. The proceedings had to be kept secret as what she was doing was outside the law. She proceeded slowly with a few children in a mud-cabin. It was not long before Nano had over 200 children and she decided that it was time for a new school. She opened one on Philpott Lane on the North side of Cork City and soon she had seven schools: two for boys and five for girls. At first alone, later with the support of her family, particularly her uncle Joseph Nagle, she established a whole network of schools in Cork. When the school day was over, she was to be seen walking the lanes of Cork to visit the sick and needy. She stole from hovel to hovel each day to gather the most needy people to teach, and night-time ministries to poverty-ridden elderly and sick in her hometown gave Nano the nickname The Lady with the Lantern. It was said of her that there was not a poor cottage in Cork that she did not know.

As her workload increased she realised that she would need help with her work. She came up with the idea to set up an Ursuline convent in Cork city which she would initially sponsor. Thus in 1771 the first Ursuline convent was established in Ireland; the first community was made up of four Cork women - who were professed at the Ursuline Convent in the Rue St Jacques in Paris. - together with a reverend mother.Nano had to go to a hedge school for her primary education.