Sisters’ 147 years in Kanturk comes to an end
MASS TO CELEBRATE NUNS CONTRIBUTION TO KANTURK
AFTER spending well over a century in Kanturk town, the Sisters of Mercy in Kanturk will vacate the convent at the end of this month.
It will bring an end to the 147 year link which they have had with the town of Kanturk.
“We are sad to leave but we have such wonderful memories of Kanturk town and its people. We have a long history with Kanturk and 147 years is a long time. This has been a home from home for us,” Sr Margaret Coffey told The Corkman.
Sr Coffey who originally hails from Midleton has spent the last 32 years at the convent, however, two others nuns have spent five decades living at the convent.
Two of the nuns have sourced accommodation in the town and she will move to the Mercy Convent in Mallow.
“We are really sorry to go as it is an end of an era. We hope to have moved out by the end of this month. We had such links with the school and the church and indeed the entire parish and the people of Kanturk,” she said.
Reflecting on 147 years of deep history, she said in past times, particularly after the Famine, life was grim in Kanturk and there was severe hardship.
“I’m now very happy to say that Kanturk is a great place to live and is a very good and thriving town,” she said.
Sr Coffey said she is looking forward to the mass of thanksgiving which will be held to honour their services in the Kanturk community on Friday night, May 22 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. T
here will then be light refreshments in the Convent of Mercy National School.
The Sisters of Mercy have played a major role in the town since they first opened their doors on December 8, 1868.
In an historical article on its opening, it was stated that at 11am, a procession of children bearing banners of the ‘Immaculate Conception’ and of the ‘Blessed Sacrament’ went to meet the Sisters of Mercy at the entrance of the church and during the mass more than 20 voices sang Farmer’s grand mass.
When the Sisters of Mercy celebrated 125 years in the town in 1993, in a newsletter to mark the occasion, it outlined in 1868 at the Convent National School, that Dean O’Regan had renovated the old Parish church for use as a school.
The sisters began teaching on the Monday following their arrival in Kanturk and they were joined by “some ladies who had been teaching up to then in a small NS in the town.”
As a tribute to the Sisters in the 1993 newsletter, it was outlined that soon after the arrival of the Sisters in the town, they began visiting the poor and sick in their homes.
‘ The Sisters went out into the streets and lanes in search of misery to be relieved, sickness to be assuaged and sorrow to be consoled,’ stated the newsletter 22 years ago.
It outlined how the nuns took food and clothing to those who could not come to the convent for them. When they began to see the number of ill-fed who couldn’t afford to eat, the Sisters took matters into their own hands and built a kitchen and it was called, ‘Mary’s Lodge.’
Here along with helpers in the region, they prepared warm meals for people who were very much in need.
In the early days, a part of the school was used as a ‘pension school’ but later on in the 1890s, a separate ‘pension school’ was built.
As outlined in the news letter it was in the ‘old Church’ which the sisters taught from 1868 until 1936 when the new national school was built.
While it was being built, classes were held in the Sacristy of the Parish Church and in the Courthouse while the old school was being demolished at the new school was being built on the same site.
Then in 1975, an extension of three classrooms and an all-purpose room was added.
In the section to mark the celebration entitled, ‘ The Industrial Department of the Convent NS 1870-1900’ it was stated that it commenced in January 1870 and had an average attendance of 220 pupils of which 30 were adults.
Various kinds of needlework was taught, “easy kind of plain work, netting, knitting, crochet, Berlin wool, fancy work and embroidery.”
The pupils received three hours “literary instruction daily” and a further three hours were devoted to Industrial Instruction.
This section of the school continued to operate from 1870 until October 1990 when attendance began to wane.
Then in 1930, what was known as ‘ the Pension school’ came under the aegis of the Department of Education and its first principal was Sr M Baptist Breen.
In the celebratory 1993 newsletter, it was stated that the original building now contains the library and computer room of Scoil Mhuire and in 1964 a new block provided science and cookery rooms.
In the late 1960s, reorganisation in the second-level schools led to co-education in Scoil Mhuire and extra classrooms and a sports hall was build during the following years.
Then in 1987, the new extension on Greenfield Road was officially open. The mass of Thanksgiving will be held at 7.30pm.