Sisters have fond memories of teaching
Image 1 of 11
Fourth and fifth class at Presentation in 1930, back from left, Josie Mullen, Rosie Giligan, Fagan, Mary Farrell, Ethel Kelly, Kathleen Thoroghgood, Annie Saunders, Mary McGrath, Imelda Attwell, Katie Roche, Emily Whelehan, and teacher, Miss Hanley. Third row, - Burke, Philomena Begley,- -2, Mary Connell, Kathleen Evans, Pearl Colgan, Winnie Muldowney, - Fagan, Mary Murtagh, - - 2, Chrissie O Leary, Second row, Mary Daly, - - 2, Sheila Mee, Maggie Mee (sisters), - - 7, Gertie Daly, Una Gilroy, Lido Jorda, - Fagan, Teresa Byrne, - Harte. Front row: - • 2, Evelyn Rouse, Kathleen Crichton, Martha Macken, Maureen Grey, Mary Hope, - McCormack, Kathleen Hennessey 7E Nellie O’Brien, Nancy Fagan, Alice Fulton.Image 2 of 11
Some of Sr Catherine’s drama pupils rehearsing a performance.Image 3 of 11
Image 4 of 11
Image 5 of 11
Image 6 of 11
Image 7 of 11
Caption CaptionImage 8 of 11
CaptionImage 9 of 11
Image 10 of 11
LEFT: A young Sr Catherine Brosnan, left, with Sr Margaret Larkin and Fr O’Connor, doing some mending on clerical robes in the 1960s. ABOVE: Mr Fox’s sixth class performing on Friday.Image 11 of 11
Presentation Sisters atIn 1959, Catherine Brosnan became the first native of Mullingar to join the Presentation Sisters in her home town in 52 years, the last having been Sr Columba O’Reilly. Sr Catherine was the last nun to leave Presentation Mullingar, along with another Mullingar native, Sr Annette O’Brien, whose family ran a public house on Dominick Street, now Smiddy’s.
Sr Catherine’s family were also in business in Dominick Street, where they ran a furniture and hardware store, beside what is now the Enable Ireland shop. She taught in Presentation Junior and Senior schools for 19 years before going as principal to Portlaoise, then to Drogheda and finally to Maynooth, from where she retired.
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Sr Catherine looked back on her teaching career. “School was interesting then because we were all involved in the choirs and drama, taking the children to Feis Lar na hÉireann and Cór Fhéile in Athlone every year. It was a busy time.” Back then, everything was taught through Irish.
Sr Maureen Waldron set up a girls club in the 1960s. Sr Catherine and some of the other sisters, Sr Mary O’Farrell and Sr Annette, as well as women from the town, taught the girls crochet and knitting. “Now and then there was a hop. It was great fun,” she said.
Asked what prompted her to become a nun, Sr Catherine explained: “I was in boarding school in Mountmellick. At that time the choices for girls were nursing, the civil service or entering a convent.” She chose the religious life.
The Presentation Sisters were “very mission minded”, she remarked. Between 1850 and 1900, 12 nuns from the Mullingar convent went to work on the missions in India. The year before she joined, four nuns from Mullingar went to Alabama to set up a school, still in existence. In 1978, Sr Annette O’Brien went to work on the missions in Zambia, where she gave many years of service, returning in 1995. Between 1982 and 1986, Sr Assumpta Guinan, RIP, joined the Sisters in Pakistan and taught in the school in Peshwar.
Sr Annette was the last Sister to teach in the Mullingar Presentation Junior school and Sr Anne Pender was the last Sister to teach in the Senior school.
Sr Anne has fond memories of teaching in Presentation Senior school when Carmel Hickey was principal. Before that, she had been teaching in a mixed secondary school. Presentation was an all-girls school and it was easier, the teachers were lovely and so were the girls, she told the Westmeath Examiner.
Sr Anne retired from teaching in 2008. “I had a lovely celebration when I retired, and the girls gave me a beautiful blue rosary beads which still hangs in my room,” she remarked.