THE DOMINICAN NUNS IN GALWAY

by Tom Kenny

The first Dominican Nunnery in Galway was founded 380 years ago, in 1644, in New Tower Street, now known as Augustine Street. They were honoured with a visit from Papal Nuncio Rinucinni three years later. When the Cromwellians took over the city, the sisters were faced with two alternatives, to renounce their religious life and return to their families or exile. They choose the latter and left for Spanish monasteries.

In 1686, two sisters returned to Galway and John Kirwan, the mayor, offered them his house, “A fine stone house in the Jacobean style with a large courtyard” in Kirwan’s Lane. They began to build a community and did so successfully. However, they were once again dispersed in 1698. They remained in town and after some years were allowed to reassemble for a while but they were scattered again in January 1716 when the convent was used as a barracks to house a company of Brigadier Harrison’s regiment. The sisters were back by November of that year.

The final dispersal happened in 1733 when an anti-Catholic frenzy swept the country and the nuns took refuge with their relatives and friends. They soon returned to their monastery which by now was known as ‘The Slate Nunnery’. Their problem then was the disastrous decline of trade in Galway which meant not many families could afford the convent dowry for their daughter – it was fixed at two hundred pounds in 1731. Things began to change some forty years later and the numbers of nuns started to rise.

The original house in Kirwan’s Lane had been enlarged with many additions and the convent premises now abutted on to Cross Street. There was no garden of any size attached and so the nuns used to take exercise outside the monastery but higher superiors found this practice reprehensible because of all the distractions in the vicinity. There were crowds coming and going to a popular theatre in the lane, cotton factories close by, a pawnbroker’s shop next door and so the sisters were limited to a walk once a month ‘in groups with modesty and gravity’ and exhorted to use the permission more rarely if possible.

In 1800, the Slate Nunnery was inhabited by a community of eight nuns and a number of parlour boarders who were relatives of the nuns. The building was deteriorating and in bad shape and a search began for another suitable premises. In 1845, they wanted to rent Dangan House but they had insufficient funds. They got lucky when a house known as ‘Mount Eaton’ or ‘Seaview’ on Taylors Hill came on the market at a rent of £60 per annum. It belonged to the Sloper family and was described as “a simple country house with eight rooms, a medley of kitchen premises to the rear, stables behind the house and with it, 5 acres of land”. As soon as they moved in, the 5 active members of the community began to work the farm and they soon found themselves feeding stricken crowds of hungry people, Famine victims, from their kitchen every day.

Many of the young girls who visited were given the rudiments of education, and as the pressures of the Famine victims eased, the nuns found themselves in charge of a small elementary school. Since then, the Dominicans have worked mostly in the field of education and they have made a remarkable contribution to life in Galway ever since as they gradually expanded their facilities into the wonderful complex that is on Taylors Hill today.

So, we have three illustrations for you today, the first is a drawing of the carved stone entrance doorway to the Slate Nunnery on Cross Street, the second is of an advertisement for the sale of the Nunnery, dated March, 1845. The photograph is of Seaview, the original building the sisters moved into on Taylors Hill. It dates from c.1870. All of the above information is taken from “A Rich Inheritance, Galway Dominican Nuns, 1644 – 1994” by Sister Rose O’Neill O.P.

The Dominican Fathers first came to Ireland 800 years ago, the sisters a little later. To celebrate that notable anniversary, they are hosting a series of lectures in St. Mary’s Church in the Claddagh on each Tuesday of this month. The next one is on Tuesday the 9^th and is titled “Dominican Women in Galway”. It will be given by Dr. Bronagh Ann McShane.  On the 16^th, Ultan Lally will be discussing “Dominicans in Times of Persecution”; on the 23^rd, Fr. Séamus Devitt CSSR will present “Dominican Stories from the Past” and on April 30^th, Fr. Stephen Cummins O.P. will talk on The Dominican Mission into the future.

All of these talks are free and start at 7.30pm. All are welcome and if you are unable to attend, you can link in to the webcam on galwaydominicans.ie.