The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They also started many education and health care facilities around the world.
Magdalene asylums, also known as Magdalene laundries, were initially Protestant but later mostly Roman Catholic institutions that operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries, ostensibly to house "fallen women". The term implied female sexual promiscuity or work in prostitution, young women who became pregnant outside of marriage, or young girls and teenagers who did not have familial support. They were required to work without pay apart from meagre food provisions, while the institutions operated large commercial laundries, serving customers outside their bases.
Íte ingen Chinn Fhalad, also known as Ita, Ida or Ides, was an early Irish nun and patron saint of Killeedy. She was known as the "foster mother of the saints of Erin". The name "Ita" was conferred on her because of her saintly qualities. Her feast day is 15 January.
Lady Georgiana Fullerton was an English novelist, philanthropist, biographer, and school founder. She was born into a noble political family. She was one of the foremost Roman Catholic novelists writing in England during the nineteenth century.
Johanna Mary Sheehy Skeffington was a suffragette and Irish nationalist. Along with her husband Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Margaret Cousins and James Cousins, she founded the Irish Women's Franchise League in 1908 with the aim of obtaining women's voting rights. She was later a founding member of the Irish Women Workers' Union. Her son Owen Sheehy-Skeffington became a politician and Irish senator.
Mother Mary Frances Aikenhead was born in Daunt's Square off Grand Parade, Cork, Ireland. Described as one of nursing's greatest leaders, she was the founder of the Catholic religious institute, the Religious Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Charity of Australia, and of St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.
Anna Catherine Parnell was an Irish nationalist and younger sister of Irish Nationalist leader, Charles Stewart Parnell.
Frances Margaret Taylor, whose religious name was Mother Magdalen of the Sacred Heart was an English nurse, editor and writer, nun, and Superior General and founder of the Roman Catholic religious congregation the Poor Servants of the Mother of God.
The Sisters of the Holy Faith is a Catholic religious congregation, originally for the care of Catholic orphans. It now works broadly in the areas of education and faith development. The congregation is part of the Vincentian family.
Souperism was a phenomenon of the Irish Great Famine. Protestant Bible societies set up schools in which starving children were fed, on the condition of receiving Protestant religious instruction at the same time. Its practitioners were reviled by the Catholic families who had to choose between Protestantism and starvation. People who converted for food were known as "soupers", "jumpers" and "cat breacs". In the words of their peers, they "took the soup". Although souperism was a rare phenomenon, it had a lasting effect on the popular memory of the Famine. It blemished the relief work by Protestants who gave aid without proselytising, and the rumour of souperism may have discouraged starving Catholics from attending soup kitchens for fear of betraying their faith.
The Poor Servants of the Mother of God are a religious congregation founded in 1869 by the venerable Mother Mary Magdalen of the Sacred Heart, Frances Margaret Taylor. She was closely assisted by her friend and benefactor Lady Georgiana Fullerton, and following her death, by her husband, Mr A G Fullerton (1808-1907).
Sarah Atkinson was an Irish writer, biographer, essayist and philanthropist.
Dr. Bartholomew Woodlock was an Irish Catholic bishop, philosopher and educator. He established the Catholic University School, Dublin, and founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Ireland. He was the 2nd Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, now University College Dublin, after Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Isabella Maria Susan Tod was a Scottish-born suffragist, women's rights campaigner and unionist politician in the north of Ireland. In Belfast she helped secure the municipal vote for women in 1887.
Maria Webb was an Irish philanthropist, writer on religious and Quaker history.
Ellen Woodlock was an Irish philanthropist, who helped set up a number of institutions which provided social services to the poor in Dublin. Born Ellen Mahony, in Cork in 1811 her father Martin Mahony ran a successful wool milling business to Cork, Ellen was married in 1830 and widowed quite young, just before the birth of her only son, Thomas. Ellen Woodlock, a sister of Francis Sylvester Mahony and was the sister in law of Rev. Dr. Bartholomew Woodlock, who was President of All Hallows College and Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland. She intended joining a religious community in France but after spending a few years in that country returned to Cork and then moved to Dublin. In Drumcondra, Dublin she met Sarah Atkinson with whom she worked on many initiatives. She helped establish St. Joseph's Institution in Dublin in 1855. Along with her daughter in law and Sarah Atkinson she established the Children's Hospital at 9 Buckingham Street in 1872, which later moved to Temple Street, which she visited every day.
Dublin Female Penitentiary, was a reform institution for "fallen women" in Dublin, Ireland. It established in 1810 and opened in 1813, it was run by the Church of Ireland and located between Berkeley Road, Eccles St. and North Circular Road. The Asylum could cater for over 40 inmates. It was administered by a Committee of ladies, for the religious and moral improvement of the women. While inmates were from all religious backgrounds, they had to adhere to the rules of the house and were instructed in the reformed faith. As with many protestant benevolent initiatives, many laywomen were involved. Mrs. Paulus Aemilius Singer of Temple Street, served as secretary of the committee, was a notable supporter of the institution. Penitents were employed in a laundry washing and mangling, and also needlework, millinery and mantua-making. As with other similar institutions the penitentiary was affiliated to a chapel. There was a Repository where the penitents' work was sold, with income used to fund the institution. After eighteen months places outside the laundry were sought for an inmate. Some inmates were sent to Queensland, Australia.
Margaret Callan was an Irish teacher, nationalist, and writer. She was also known by her pseudonym Thornton MacMahon.
Anna Gaynor or Mother Mary John was an Irish Religious Sister of Charity and first superior of Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross, Dublin.
Margaret Radclyffe Livingstone Eyre née Lady Margaret Kennedy, later called the Countess of Newburgh was a British philanthropist. Said to be an "archetype of the nineteenth-century charitable Catholic lady" who gave a good portion of her income to good works.
