On October 31st an era ended when seven nuns left Loreto Hall, 77 Stephen’s Green, which had been home to some of them for 30 years. Loreto Sisters had lived and worked on St Stephen’s Green from the foundation of a secondary school at No 53 by Mother Teresa Ball in 1841. Mother Teresa had been born Francis Ball in Eccles Street, in 1794.
School
Her father was a wealthy silk weaver who sent Francis to be educated at the Bar Convent in York, where the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded by Venerable Mary Ward in 1611, ran a school for Catholic girls. On her father’s death in 1808, Francis returned to her home and was expected to marry a wealthy Catholic merchant. But Francis longed to do some good in the world and initially considered becoming an Ursuline nun like her older sister Cecilia. Archbishop Daniel Murray suggested that she return to York and become a Loreto nun in order to establish schools in Ireland for the daughters of the emerging Catholic middle class.
Loreto Sisters
In 1821 Francis, returned to Dublin as Mother Mary Teresa Ball IBVM, with two other Loreto sisters. In 1841 they bought 53 St Stephen’s Green, which, along with No 52, had been built by the La Touche family that owned the Bank of Ireland, founded by David La Touche, a Huguenot in 1710. (David La Touche had begun his career, like Francis Ball’s father as a silk weaver.) Francis and her companions were members of the “Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary” but were familiarly known as the Loreto Sisters in memory of the town in Italy to which, according to pious legend, the house of the Holy Family in Nazareth had been miraculously transported.
Boarders
Loreto College expanded rapidly and was both a day school and boarding school until the 1970s when boarding was discontinued. The school quickly established a reputation for academic excellence and its pupils were among the first women to enter the professions. Measured in terms of the number of its pupils going on to third-level education, Loreto College continues to be one of the top schools in Ireland
When the Royal University was established in 1878, women were permitted to take its examinations, but not to attend lectures in the building on St Stephen’s Green South which is now Newman House. In 1899, the Loreto Sisters organised lectures in the school at 53 St Stephen’s Green to prepare young women for the examinations of the Royal University.
Study centre
These proved so popular that more space was needed and No 54 St Stephen’s Green was bought to accommodate the university students. Number 54 became known as “Loreto College” and continued to be a study centre for young women taking the Royal University examinations until the National University was established in 1908. The National University accepted women as students, and as the number of women attending University College in Earlsfort Terrace grew, No 54 Stephen’s Green was no longer adequate to accommodate them.
In 1911 the Loreto Sisters bought 77 St Stephen's Green to use as a university hostel, following the death of its owner, Augusta Magan. Augusta was an eccentric recluse and a possible inspiration for Ms Havisham in Great Expectations. (Dickens had heard of her when he visited Dublin on a reading tour in 1858.) The Magans are one of the oldest documented Irish families and Augusta inherited almost 6,000 acres of land in Westmeath and Meath. Though a sought-after heiress, she never married. And 77 Stephen's Green was so packed with Augusta's lifetime accumulation of possessions that it took a fortnight to clear out after her death.
Historic home
The Loreto Sisters restored No 77 to its grandeur and used the fine reception room overlooking St Stephen’s Green as their parlour for entertaining guests, under the stern gaze of Mother Teresa Ball’s portrait. No 77 continued as a hostel for girls and a commercial college until the 1990s. For the past 15 years, No 77 has been home to a diminishing group of working and retired Loreto Sisters. As the house could not be adapted for the needs of elderly women, the seven remaining nuns departed their historic home with heavy hearts for other Loreto houses on October 31st, ending the presence of Loreto Sisters on St Stephen’s Green which began 174 years ago.