2019

Unveiling the history of the Irish nun

On 27 March 2019, Professor Raftery gave an invited address at the Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin. The lecture, Unveiling the History of the Irish Nun, is available as a podcast. Click on (opens in a new window)https://soundcloud.com/loyola-institute/loyola-lecture-series-unveiling-the-history-of-the-irish-nun-prof-deirdre-raftery

HES (UK), UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, LONDON

The 2019 History of Education (UK) conference was held in the University of London in November. Professor Raftery and Ellen Regan attended the conference and presented the following paper:

• Deirdre Raftery and Ellen Regan, 'Out of Africa: oral histories of overseas volunteering in education, c. 1950–2010'

Seminar at dlr Lexicon

On 23 October 2019, Dr Catriona Delaney was invited to take part in a seminar celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Dominican Oratory of the Sacred Heart in Dún Laoghaire. Dr Delaney's paper, 'Women religious and oral history' highlighted the importance of oral testimonies in recording and preserving the history of female religious. 

CHWR, ST MARY'S UNIVERSITY, INDIANA

Pictured above L to R: Catherine KilBride, Ruth Ferris, Deirdre Raftery and Catriona Delaney

In June 2019, members of the ConventCollections Team travelled stateside to attend the triennial Conference on the History of Women Religious (CHWR). This was a momentous occasion for ConventCollections as not only did we bring our research on Irish female religious to a laregly American audience, but our founder, Professor Deirdre Raftery, returned home with the prestigious Distinguished Historian Award. At CHWR2019, our team presented the following papers:

• Deirdre Raftery, 'Finding Nano: the long shadow of hagiography and the challenges of writing biographies of women religious today'
• Ruth Ferris, 'Commemoration or heritage: challenges experienced by Mother Michael Corcoran IBVM, Superior General (1888-1918)'
• Catherine KilBride, 'Portrait of a pioneer: identifying a faithful image of Nano Nagle'
• Catriona Delaney, “We must prefer the schools to all others:” Preserving the legacy of the Presentation Sisters’ contribution to second-level education in Ireland, 1850-1950’

ISCHE, UNIVERSITY OF OPORTO, OPORTO

In 2019, the ConventCollections team travelled to sunny Oporto for the 41st International Standing Conference on the History of Education. The conference took place in the Univeristy of Oporto from 16-20 July. Our research team presented the following papers:

• Deirdre Raftery, 'Freedom forged in the crucible of chastity: transnational perspectives on Irishwomen who became teaching sisters, 1830-1960'
• Catherine Nowlan-Roebuck, 'Convent schools as spaces for education: The development of Presentation Convent schools in nineteenth-century Ireland'
• Deirdre Bennett, ‘Occupying gendered and denominational spaces: The hidden financers of Catholic Education in Post-Penal Ireland’

H-WRBI, INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL RESEARCH, LONDON

The 2019 History of Women Religious Britain and Ireland (H-WRBI) conference took place from the 6-7 June at the Institute for Historical Research, London. The theme for the conference was 'Landscapes and the Environment' and our papers focused largely on convent space:

• Ruth Ferris and Deirdre Raftery, 'Transnational networks in female education: the "global reach" of Loreto schooling under the leadership of M. Teresa Ball and M. Michael Corcoran'
• Catherine Nowlan-Roebuck, 'Convent schools as places of education: the development of Presentation Convent Schools in nineteenth-century Ireland'