Basically ~ secondary education for girls should be similar to that available for boys.
Up until this time, girls did not have access to secondary education at all.
Mathematics and Latin should be included in the girls' curriculum.
The "accomplishments" (deportment, social graces, etc) should be downgraded with greater stress placed on examinations.
Such a secondary education would qualify these female graduates to further their education in a university.
This was the beginning of a movement in female education in Ireland that was turning away from traditional convent boarding schools for the upper classes and turning more toward "pension" day schools ~ private academies ~ for the growing upper middle class.
Because these Pension Schools catered to both the primary and secondary education of their pupils, they were the only schools which gave them the opportunity to move upward in society.
In 1854, Dean John Kenny, the Parish Priest of Ennis, went to the Mercy Convent in Limerick to plead for a group of Sisters to establish a foundation in his parish.
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Notice the enthusiastic young Sister in the back. Isn't her smile beautiful! I wonder how her life turned out......
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On May 29, 1854, Mother Elizabeth Moore and four Sisters from Limerick arrived in Ennis to begin the new foundation
The Sisters took up residence and St. Xavier’s Convent (Primary) School started immediately.
By 1856, 547 girls, taught by five Sisters, were enrolled in their school.
Their original facilities were now inadequate for the number of students and for the additional Sisters needed to teach them.
In keeping with the demands of the time to offer girls a more modern education than what was usually offered at Convent Boarding Schools, in 1860, the Sisters of Mercy in Ennis decided to establish St Mary's Pension School ..
This was the beginnings of what was later to become St Mary's Secondary School or Colaiste Muire in Irish.
For a fee, girls were taught music, drawing, painting, arithmetic, French, German, Euclid and well as English literature.
Of course, this new venture would require money. How would they ever finance such a project?
Well ~ the Sisters did what Catholic schools and parishes have always done to raise money ~ they held an annual Bazaar!
The Sisters actually started holding an Annual Bazaar in 1857 and every year ~ until 1872 ~ the local newspaper, The Clare Journal and Ennis Advertiser, would publish reports on its success, its attendance and its volunteers.
Mrs Gavin and Mrs Milward worked together on this Bazaar. They probably knew each other through their husbands' association with the Bank of Ireland.
Mrs Milward is, of course, our great great grandmother. Mrs Gavin is Edmund Burke-Browne's sister. Miss O'Rielly is Henry Patrick's sister!
E.B. Browne, Esq, Castle Park is Bessie Reilly's husband.
Ellen Mary O'Brien Milward (1817- )
Mrs Gavin (Frances Burke-Browne, Edmund's sister), Miss Gavin (her daughter, Marcella who became a Sister of Nazareth) and Mrs Milward, (our great great grandmother).
Imagine my surprise when I saw our ancestors' names in this newspaper account of the Sisters of Mercy Bazaar!
It told me two things ~ not only where our great grandmother must have attended school but ~ the Milward and Reilly families ~ despite living 20 miles apart in Ennis and Ennistymon ~ must have been acquainted with each other.
Mrs Milward is Ellen Mary, our great great grandmother.
E. B. Browne (Edmund Burke Browne) married Henry's sister, Bessie Reilly.
Miss Reilly is Henry's sister, Nannie.
Mrs Gavin is Edmund's sister, Frances and Miss Gavin is her daughter, Marcella Gavin. Marcella later became a Sister of Nazareth in Hammersmith, England.
I immediately emailed the Mercy Archivist in Dublin for Mary Frances Milward's student records.
Unfortunately, there are no student records in their Archives.
But, I am going to take a leap and say that Mary Frances Milward Reilly went to St Mary's.
Not only that ~ but I will bet Bessie Reilly Burke-Browne sent her seven daughters to the Sisters of Mercy for their education. too.
Since it was such a small community, and the ladies obviously worked together on Bazaar Committees for several years, the Milwards and the Reillys must have known each other.
So, in 1872, when 17 year old Mary Milward married 34 year old Henry Patrick Reilly, she must have known him and his family all her life......
St Mary's Pension School was opened in September 1860. Mary Milward was only 5 years old at the time so she would still have been in St Xavier's. She'd be eligible for the Pension in about 1869.
The oldest of the Burke-Browne ladies (Marcella) would not have been eligible for St Xavier until 1868; Frances in 1870; Agnes in 1871; Adelaide in 1872; Ida in 1873; Emma in 1874 and Louisa in 1876,
Obviously, at a time in history when the education of girls was not universally considered important, these parents were all very conscientious about the future of their daughters and had made plans for their education years in advance.
I like knowing that!
Hannah "Nannie" Reilly (1835-1911)
In 1861, for the third year in a row, Mrs Gavin and Mrs Milward did the Refreshments and Edmund Burke Browne was there, too. He and Bessie had gotten married the previous November of 1860.
Mrs Milward was pregnant with her 11th child ~ Ernest ~ who was born 7 months later.
The next year ~ 1862 ~ Mrs Milward was the only member of the family to participate at the Bazaar and no one participated in 1863.
They had other committments ~ Baby Ernest had died in 1863 and the Burke-Brownes welcomed their first daughter, Marcella, who was born just a week before the 1863 Bazaar.
But, they are back in 1864! Bessie & Nannie plus our great great grandparents, Ellen & John Harnett Milward, were there, too.
St Mary's Pension School provided secondary education for the girls of the town and the surrounding area. However, the Sisters were aware that many girls could not avail of this opportunity because of the distance from the school.
Neither could they afford the boarding school fees of the time.
In response to this need, the Sisters renovated their vacated school building in town and opened St Joseph's Boarding School in September 1865.
There were 70 boarding students in 1869.
I will bet that the seven Burke-Browne sisters attended St Joseph's Boarding School in Ennis.
John Harnett Milward (1817-1870)
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Bessie was pregnant again in 1866 but she, Nannie and John were there. Mrs Milward was 8 months pregnant with her youngest son.
Mrs Milward
Everyone made it again in 1867 ~ Bessie was pregnant with her third daughter
Nannie Reilly was the only one to make it to the Bazaar in 1869. Bessie was pregnant again.
In 1870, we have Mrs Gavin & Bessie chairing the Refreshment Stall!
Nannie is there and ~ the most surprising development of all ~ she is with their older brother.
Edward Reilly, Esq is there, too!
This is the only document other than his death record that I have found for him and he is living at Woodpark with his parents and Nannie. I do not know what to make of it!
Bessie had delivered the last of her seven daughters in 1871.
Mary Frances Milward was born in 1855 and was 8 years older than Bessie's daughters.
She was probably at St Mary's when they were at St Joseph's Boarding School.
The families must have known each other.
As stated above, there were over 500 students in 1856.
500 students!
Yet ~ members of BOTH sides of our family were the most active and involved parents in the entire school community!
I like knowing that!
The Burke Browne family lived at Castle Park House in Kilmihil and Nannie lived at Woodpark House in Ennistymon.
Castle Park House in Kilmihil.
The Milwards lived in Ennis at Fountain House
What an amazing discovery to find these newspaper clippings! From them, we can determine that the families knew each other; where the girls attended school and that Edward is "around" at Woodpark in 1870 ~ the year his mother passes away.
He is still a mystery.
The Convent of Mercy today - The Templegate Hotel in Ennis
May
28, 2017
Yesterday,
I uncovered another interesting tidbit of information.
Mrs
Gavin was Frances (Fanny) Burke-Browne ~ Edmund Burke-Browne’s sister.
So,
it made sense that she and Edmund’s wife (Bessie Reilly) would work together on
the Bazaar.
But,
Fanny had been widowed before she married Michael Gavin in 1854.
Her
first husband was James O’Brien who had suddenly died of a heart attack in 1845, 2 years after they
married.
James
O’Brien had been manager of the Bank of Ireland in Kilrush and his father was
the Manager of the same Bank in Ennis.
When
his father, Terence, retired in 1848, John Harnett Milward (Mrs Milward's husband) had succeeded him as Bank
Manager in Ennis.
Sooooooo
~ Since their husbands were bank colleagues, Mrs Milward probably already knew
Mrs Gavin before they had co-chaired at the Sisters of Mercy Bazaar!
The
County Clare Gentry class was a small little world.
I
am discovering that everyone in the Gentry Class was interconnected
with one another in some way or the other.
EPILOGUE
History gives a nation its bearing on what it is and how its people are affected by what has happened in the past.
Its kings and queens, its wars - with victories and defeats - these all mold a nation’s culture into the way it views itself in the present.
In the same way, a family history presents how a family has survived and come to terms with the great social and cultural experiences of the ages.
We hope these stories will give each member of our family a foundation and, in some small way, explain how we came to be what we are today.
Hopefully, through these vignettes, our future generations will gain a knowledge of the energy and dynamism, the loves and hates, the errors and mistakes, the victories and failures, the struggles and successes that make us what we are.
Our family history presents a fascinating read - and, hopefully, some lessons to be learned in the process.
