Opinion

Rite and Reason: Exhibition illustrates determination of Irish nuns during famine, civil unrest and natural disaster

Daring to Hope: Irish Religious Sisters Embracing the Unknown (1923-2023) offers a snapshot of sisters’ work at home and overseas

An archive photograph of nuns outside the holiday house of the Presentation Sisters in Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry. Photograph source: Frank Miller/The Irish Times
Dr Toni Pyke
Sun Aug 18 2024 - 12:14

“Wow this is cool! ... Their work was very inspiring, and I was very surprised at how long ago some of these photos were taken.” This is a response from among the 300 students who explored a photographic exhibition at the Dominican Sisters Resource Centre in Cabra, Dublin last April.

The portable, photographic exhibition in question, titled Daring to Hope: Irish Religious Sisters Embracing the Unknown (1923-2023), provides a snapshot of the social history spanning over 100 years of the work of Irish religious sisters at home and overseas.

Of particular interest to the students were images such as a Dominican sister coaching boxing; a Little Sister of the Assumption riding a motorbike through the city; a sister doctor with the Medical Missionaries of Mary performing surgery and training local medics in Kampala, Uganda; or sisters taking action on the streets against apartheid in South Africa.

They were struck by the powerful image of a Columban sister who was taken hostage, shot and killed while visiting prisoners in jail during a prison riot in Lima, Peru, in 1983.

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Captured in the exhibition is the manner in which religious sisters transformed and embraced the changing times within female religious life from 1923 until the present day. The 100-year journey, which coincides with the foundation of the Irish State, is shared through three distinct eras: Pioneering Ministries (1923-1966), Era of Great Change (1967-2000) and Ongoing Ministries (2001-2023).

The exhibition demonstrates how sisters diversified their ministries in response to emerging social issues. They pioneered new initiatives to challenging and, at times, risky realities in partnership with many committed individuals and groups. Subsequently, they handed over ownership and control of many of these services, which continue today.

Examples include the homeless charity Focus Ireland set up by Sisters of Charity member Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, affectionately known as Sr Stan; Clan Credo community finance NGO, established by Sr Magdalen Fogarty of the Presentation Sisters; and Cuan Mhuire, which provides drug, alcohol and gambling addiction treatment services, with centres across Ireland, established by Sr Consilio, a Sister of Mercy.

There are many more examples of collaboration and stepping back by the sisters, both in Ireland and across the globe.

Today, many Irish religious sisters continue to engage in social action and to address contemporary social and ecological issues. One excellent example is An Tairseach Organic Farm and Ecology Centre in the garden of Ireland, Co Wicklow. An Tairseach – an Irish term for threshold, is the fruition of a dream by the Irish Dominican Sisters to embrace caring for the Earth, long before it became mainstream to do so.

This foresight is indicative of the message that runs through this exhibition; that Irish religious sisters dared to hope and embraced the unknown, making individual sacrifices, which are now often overlooked, yet are still positively impacting so many lives across the globe.

Told through photographs, videos and stories, the exhibition highlights how sisters worked within a context of poverty, war and conflict, discrimination, strict religious and social mores. They did this with initiative, courage and determination to support the societies in which they lived.

The photographs and stories illustrate the courage, determination, creativity and imagination of sisters and their colleagues in areas of famine, civil unrest, health crises and natural disasters. Often, they did this in remote locations, across continents and in countries, many of us had never heard of.

Simultaneously, religious sisters were relied on to establish and maintain countless diverse social services within the church. In one panel within the exhibition, a letter from the famous crooner Bing Crosby is included, in which he seeks support for Irish religious sisters to staff a hospital project that he was committed to in California. He was far from alone with requests for Irish religious sisters to provide staffing for new initiatives in health, education and social services.

We are all too aware of what is described in the exhibition as “the horrific abuse that was meted out to children and women during this period” and the devastating consequences that continues for the victims, survivors and others from those dark days. This “haunting reality” of the overall story of a minority of Irish religious sisters is acknowledged as part of the story.

The Daring to Hope – Irish Religious Sisters Embracing the Unknown photographic exhibition was officially launched on October 3rd 2023 by Caoimhe de Barra, CEO of Trócaire, in Iveagh House at the Department of Foreign Affairs. It has since been transported across Ireland and to Rome at the invitation of the Irish Ambassador to the Holy See.

This is an opportune moment for us to reflect on the journey of Irish religious sisters and to learn and share the reality of this social history project more widely. The next hosting of the exhibition, from Tuesday, will be in the Chapel at St John of God Convent in Wexford as part of National Heritage Week. Further information: www.daringtohope.ie.

Dr Toni Pyke on behalf of project organising group Daring to Hope – Irish Religious Sisters Embracing the Unknown

The exhibition will run in the Chapel, St John of God Convent, Newtown Road, Wexford, Y35 K5RK, Tuesday 20th to Thursday 22nd, August, 10am – 4:30pm. Further Information at St John of God Heritage Centre, 053-9142293 or donal.moore@ssjg.ie .