Four American nuns who made Drogheda their home will be among the stars of a new programme to be aired on RTE One.
The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, who founded their convent in James Street, Drogheda over ten years ago, will feature in ‘The Last Nuns in Ireland’ which will be broadcast on Tuesday, January 16th., and will be examining the role of religious sisters in Ireland.
Journalist and broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald will have exclusive access to the sisters in their home.
McDonald examines the role of female religious sisters in Ireland, from earliest times to the present day, to see how they have shaped Irish lives - for better or for worse.
If these really are “The Last Nuns in Ireland”, McDonald asks whether we can acknowledge the achievements of these women as we deal with the legacy of the abuse scandals?
The statistics are stark. The average age of nuns in Ireland is now over 80 - and the supply of vocations to religious life has slowed to a trickle.
Thirty years of secularisation and scandals, combined with public disillusionment and negative media coverage, have contributed to a drastic decline in religious vocations.
This is the context and spur for the film, authored by Dearbhail, who cut her teeth as a young journalist reporting on the clerical and institutional abuse scandals. In a society where “the nuns” once ran practically every element of our education, healthcare and social services, she asks herself if she is ready to look at their contribution in the round?
Dearbhail starts her journey in her home town of Newry where she spent 14 years at two local schools run by the Order of St Clare, meeting with Sr Julie McGoldrick, her former teacher, how is now Mother Abbess of the Sisters of St Clare’s in Ireland.
11 years ago, Sr Jacinta, Sr Monica Ward, Sr Veronica Cowen and Sr Kelly Francis Oslin travelled from New York to Ohio to Boston and were warmly welcomed into the community, where they remain very active.
The convent opened in Drogheda on the advice of Cardinal Dolan of New York as a tribute to those who educated him in his early years, including Sr Bosco, who holds a close association with Drogheda.
Writing in Catholic New York, he said he was inspired in his early life by the Sisters of Mercy who came from Drogheda to teach at Holy Infant School, Ballwin, Missouri in 1957.
'These women did for me what Mary did for Elizabeth, and brought to me the saving message that Jesus was our Saviour..they were women of joy, learning, wisdom, prayer and love,” he said at the time.
He said he always wanted to 'pay them back' and when Sr Bosco 'blew out the sanctuary lamp' for the last time in the convent in Drogheda, he felt he must do something.
He asked the New York based Franciscan Sisters would they go to Drogheda if he could secure them a home.
'When I asked the pastor of St Mary's parish, Drogheda, Father Denis Nulty (now Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin) if he would welcome sisters, he shouted his assurances of an open door!'
The Franciscan Sisters were formed in 1988 and this is their fifth worldwide convent, three in New York and one in Leeds.
Speaking on camera for the first time, several sisters tell their side of those controversies - their shock and dismay at learning about these scandals, the challenges to their own faith and how they have had to deal with negative perceptions of their legacy to Irish society.
Some sisters feel that religious life is at an end whilst others are convinced there will always be a place for nuns in Irish society.
For Dearbhail, this process makes her examine her own preconceptions of religious life and wonder how we can navigate current and future flashpoints involving the State and the Catholic Church in Ireland.
“I have spent a significant part of my own vocation as a journalist criticising ‘the nuns’ and the Catholic Church’s once powerful hold over Irish society”, said McDonald.
“But this is a way of life could be gone in 10 or 15 years’ time. This journey forced me to revise many of my own prejudices about women in religious life. We cannot avoid our shared history, but we do need to find ways to navigate the complicated relationships between Church and State in the future. Exploring the lives of ‘the nuns’ has helped me reflect on the need for those important conversations.”
The Last Nuns in Ireland is a Scratch Films production for RTÉ made with the support from the Sound & Vision Fund of Coimisiún na Meán.