The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute has 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 referred to female sexual promiscuity or sex workers, 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.
Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland is the patroness saint of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiographies, she was an abbess who founded the important abbey of Kildare, as well as several other monasteries of nuns. There are few documented historical facts about her, and her hagiographies are mainly anecdotes and miracle tales, some of which are Christianisations of hero tales from Irish mythology. They say Brigid was the daughter of an Irish clan chief and an enslaved Christian woman, and was fostered in a druid's household before becoming a consecrated virgin. She is patroness of many things, including poetry, learning, healing, protection, blacksmithing, livestock and dairy production. In her honour, a perpetual fire was kept burning at Kildare for centuries.
Íte ingen Chinn Fhalad, also known as Íde, 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.
The Archdiocese of Dublin is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the eastern part of Ireland. Its archepiscopal see includes the republic's capital city – Dublin. The cathedral church of the archdiocese is St Mary's Pro-Cathedral. Dublin was formally recognised as a metropolitan province in 1152 by the Synod of Kells. Its second archbishop, Lorcán Ua Tuathail, is also its patron saint.
Frances Margaret Taylor, religious name Mary Magdalen of the Sacred Heart was an English religious sister and founder of the congregation of 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 did not occur frequently, the perception of 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 Roman Catholic religious congregation founded in 1869 by 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, A G Fullerton (1808-1907).
Sarah Atkinson was an Irish writer, biographer, essayist and philanthropist.
Bartholomew Woodlock was a Roman 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.
Maria Webb was an Irish philanthropist, writer on religious and Quaker history.
Ellen Woodlock (1811-1884) 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.
Virginia Mary Crawford was a British Catholic suffragist, feminist, journalist and author, cited in the publicised Dilke scandal and divorce in 1886, founder of the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society.
Dublin Female Penitentiary was a reform institution for "fallen women" in Dublin, Ireland. It was established in 1810 and opened in 1813. It was run by the Church of Ireland and located between Berkeley Road, Eccles Street and North Circular Road. The institution could cater for over 40 inmates.
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.
Mary John Baptist De Lacy, was an Irish-born Sister of Charity, and one of the first religious sisters to come to Australia. She was one of five Sisters of Charity who arrived in Sydney in 1838 to serve poor women convicts. She founded and managed the St. Vincent Hospital in Woolloomooloo. She lived in Australia until 1859, when she returned to Ireland, spending her final years in the Sisters of Charity Mother House in Dublin.
