In October 1797 Isabella Mc Loughlin and Catherine Meighan left Kilkenny and went to Cork City to Nano Nagle to become Presentation Sisters. Both were in their early twenties and both were from St. Mary's Parish. Isabella Mc Loughlin's father was a dyer and he had a property in the Coal Market (now Parliament Street), a fashionable part of town. Isabella's mother was educated in France. Catherine Meighan's mother had a shop in High St. where books, hardware and groceries were sold. On October 3rd Isabella and Catherine set out for Cork. They were accompanied by the Bishop of Ossory, James Lanigan.

They travelled in a coach called "The Fly". This was the normal public transport from Dublin to Cork, Kilkenny being on its route. It was not called "The Fly" because it went quickly or "flew" along. In fact, the journey was slow, tiring and even dangerous. It took a week to reach Cork.

When they arrived in Cork they went to Nano Nagle's house in Douglas St. Here they learned and lived the Presentation way of life under the guidance of Nano Nagle. In July 1800 Isabella and Catherine were professed as Presentation Sisters. Then they returned to Kilkenny.

On September 25th 1800 Catherine and Isabella arrived at a house in James's Street Kilkenny. It was beside the city wall, where Superquinn is now. They were the first teaching sisters in the diocese of Ossory and they were defying the Penal Laws. In the convent Isabella was known as Sr. Joseph and Catherine became Sr. de Sales.

The school:

They opened their school on the 12th of October 1800. They had intended to limit class size to a maximum of twelve. However, on the first day sixty pupils, all girls arrived. The school day was from nine o' clock in the morning to twelve noon and from one o'clock to half past three in the afternoon. Holidays were short, a month in the summer and ten days at Christmas and Easter.

The curriculum was decided by Nano Nagle herself. The children were taught religion, reading, writing, arithmetic, needle work and spinning. Religion was regarded as the most important subject. The facts were presented in simple language and the children were taught to speak reverently of God and they were not allowed to ask questions. The three R's were taught. Reading was from dull unattractive books; writing was on slates and arithmetic was of a very basic kind. Spinning was taught because almost everyone but the very poorest had a spinning wheel in those days.

Sewing was taught because, if the girls could sew, then they could earn a living when they were older. Complete silence in class was insisted on. Isabella and Catherine had no experience of teaching. In those days there were no training colleges. But they were both well educated. It is not known where they were educated but it was probably by Ursuline nuns. Catherine and Isabella were both excellent at needlework and so they taught the girls sewing. Since all sewing had to be done by hand this was a very worthwhile skill for the girls to acquire. Shirt making was an industry with great potential. However neither Catherine nor Isabella knew anything about it, so a lay teacher, Mary Buggy, was employed to teach shirt making. Many more girls came to the school to learn this useful craft. To facilitate the teaching of spinning, extra spinning wheels were purchased in 1804 along with flax. Existing spinning wheels were repaired. Another craft taught was lace making. Brigid Flanagan from Galway came to teach it. Lace-making proved to be a lucrative craft.

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