Nano Nagle Icon (segment) by Desmond Kyne |
Nano Nagle was born in
Ballygriffin, Co. Cork, in 1718. This makes
her 10 years older than Teresa. Her family
were well known in the south of Ireland and
despite their loyalty to the Catholic Faith, they
managed to hold onto their ancestral property.
Unlike Teresa, Nano came from distinguished
and wealthy forebears. Nano's parents
wanted education for their children, so both Nano
and her sister Ann were sent to Paris where they
spent some years in a Convent School.On their return to Ireland they
saw the appalling state of the poor and Nano was
very troubled. She saw clearly the great risk she
would run if she attempted to start a school for
Catholic children in open violation of the
law. Besides, where would she hope to find
money to support such a school, for as yet she
had not inherited her uncle's fortune. She spent the next
couple of years trying to decide what was the
best thing to do. In early 1760, she spent
some time in Dublin with her sister Ann and their
mother(this was after the death of their
father,Garreth Nagle) During this time in Dublin,
Nano seems to have met Teresa, because from the
earliest preserved letter of Nano to Teresa, 29th
September 1776, they seem to have known each
other very well.
While in Dublin she visited the sick and instructed the poor, and more than likely helped Teresa in her early efforts to start a school. Nano returned to Cork after the death of both her sister and her mother, and began her own little school in a thatched cottage in Cove Lane in the city. On Christmas Eve 1775, Nano Nagle founded the Presentation Sisters to bring education to the five continents. From this small beginning began the World-wide education centres of the Presentation Sisters.Nano and Teresa comminicated frequently and discussed the plight of the Poor in both cities. |
