Deirdre Raftery Libros

Focusing on the contributions of Irish-born nuns, this book explores their pivotal role in establishing educational institutions in the Anglophone world. It uncovers their journey from Ireland to create convent schools and colleges for women, challenging the narrative that portrays them solely as colonial figures. Instead, it highlights their development of influential transnational networks while maintaining strong connections to their Irish roots, thereby shaping the education of women globally while preserving elements of their own cultural heritage.

Educated at the Bar Convent, York, Teresa Ball became a pioneer of girls' education when she returned to Ireland, opening Loreto Abbey convent and boarding school in 1822. The Dublin convent quickly attracted the daughters of the Irish elite, not only as pupils but also as postulants and novices. The rapid expansion of Loreto convents in Ireland helped to provide a supply of nuns who founded a network of Loreto convents in nineteenth-century India, Mauritius, Gibraltar, Canada, England, Spain and Australia. This book commences with an original and important study of the Balls and their social world in Dublin at the start of the nineteenth century. Their network included members of the Catholic Committee, the Catholic Church hierarchy, and many benevolent public figures. The book gives new insight into how women operated in the margins of this Catholic world. The education of the Ball children, at York and Stonyhurst, positioned them for success in Catholic society, at a time when the confidence of their Church was growing in Ireland. The youngest of the Ball children was professed as a nun in 1816, in the York convent of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM), and return

For one hundred years, Kylemore Abbey has been home to the Irish Benedictine nuns, whose monastery in Flanders was destroyed during the First World War. Known in continental Europe as the Irish Dames of Ypres, the community was founded in 1665 and provided education to the daughters of elite Irish Catholics during the penal era. On arriving in Connemara in 1920, the Benedictines established a monastery and opened a boarding school. This book provides the first fully illustrated account of the Irish Benedictines and their monastery at Kylemore. It also charts the fascinating history of the castle, built by Mitchell Henry and later home to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester. The stunningly beautiful castle became a national landmark in the nineteenth century. The twentieth century saw the Benedictines develop the gardens, restore the Gothic Chapel and open the castle to the public. Meticulously researched with material from the Kylemore archives, this book provides a compelling account of a unique part of Irish history, while the images capture the life of the nuns, and the savage beauty of Kylemore and its surroundings under the Diamond Mountain.