The Stately Homes of the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles

Originally written for the Association for Church Archives of Ireland (ACAI)

The Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) are perhaps best known as a missionary order, dedicated to the service of poor and marginalised communities around the world, a task which they have been engaged in since their foundation in 1876.  Consequently, the OLA have played an intrinsic part in the building of convents, schools, community centers and hospitals in impoverished regions of the globe for almost 150 years. The Irish Province of the OLA in particular was involved in the missions to West Africa having prepared generations of sisters for this assignment from within the walls of their convents here in Ireland. Although this long and storied history of missionary work is at the core of the OLA’s spirit, the history of the Irish convents themselves is a topic not often discussed, despite the fact that many of these places were old stately properties with vibrant histories of their own. With this in mind, it may be worthwhile to explore the story of the OLA in Ireland through an investigation of the history of some of the more impressive houses which accommodated so many of these sisters prior to their departure on mission to the rest of the world.

SUMMERSTOWN

When the OLA first arrived in Ireland in 1887, they did so at the invitation of the Society of African Missions (SMA) who were looking for sisters to run their culinary and laundry departments at Saint Joseph’s Seminary on Blackrock Road in Cork. In its earliest years, the property was shared between the SMA and the OLA, and this arrangement lasted until 1889 when the SMA temporarily vacated, moving to their new property in Wilton. As a consequence of this, from 1889 to sometime between 1903 and 1907, the OLA sisters continued to occupy Blackrock Road where they began a small novitiate.[1] Upon the eventual return of the SMA, it was determined that the sisters required a house of their own. For this reason, the novitiate was moved to Summerstown House which was purchased from the Clibborne methodist family who sold fruit and flowers in Cork City.[2] Summerstown was the home of the Irish OLA until 1913 when the property was vacated and the novitiate moved again to Ardfoyle Convent.[3] Unfortunately, Summerstown House itself no longer survives. Its only trace is the property’s entryway which is located off Glasheen Road next to Saint Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork.

ARDFOYLE CONVENT

Ardfoyle Convent as it can be found today, is a spread out, multi-story complex which houses many of the OLA sisters in Ireland and serves as the primary house and administrative centre of the Irish Province. However, at the time of its acquisition in 1913, Ardfoyle Convent was a very different site. In the beginning, the property was a two story house accompanied by a quadrangle of buildings extending westward from the main house and known by the name of ‘Clifton’. Built first in 1761, then renovated or rebuilt sometime between 1776 to 1777, Clifton House was subsequently occupied at one time or another by different merchant families, starting with the Baldwins, then the Hares, the Bagcooles, the Moore-Travers, Usbornes, Haughtons and lastly the Mahonys.[4]

 

At the time the sisters acquired the property and moved in, the house had fallen into disrepair and was  too small to comfortably accommodate the community of sisters who moved there from Summerstown. With the exception of a glass corridor being added to the front of the building, the property remained unchanged until as late as 1922 when the first major additions to the house began. These changes included the construction of an overhead dormitory, a new chapel, and a small laundry with this work being concluded sometime around 1926.[5]

 

 

In the thirties and forties, further expansion took place with the construction of Saint Patrick’s Wing, Saint Peter Claver’s Block, and Saint Anthony’s Wing to the west of the main house, with the last of these being completed in 1943. In these earliest years, Ardfoyle was the centre for the missionary work of the Irish Province being a house of religious formation and prayer from the beginning. Sisters here prepared for their mission to West Africa with some training to be nurses at Mercy Hospital in Cork. Others instead focused their efforts on reading, writing and arithmetic so as to be able to teach these subjects through English which they prepared for in part by completing their English School Certificates.[6]  The sisters also began a prep school in 1921 which eventually evolved into a primary school run from a school building constructed on the convent grounds in 1931. This remained open until 1971.[7]

 

 

The next phase of Ardfoyle’s development took place in the late fifties with another change to the house itself.  A much larger chapel was built in 1959 along with a new community room, entrance, offices and lifts. In 1958, the novitiate was moved from Ardfoyle to their second house in Rostrevor. This left room for the OLA to run a boarding and secondary school from within Ardfoyle Convent which they did from 1958 until 1973. It was around this time that a shift happened in the nature of the OLA mission as well. As West Africa continued to grow and develop, in part thanks to the widespread adoption of primary school education, West Africa now had a need for second and third level teachers and educators. In response, the provincial administration at Ardfoyle arranged for the sisters who were trained in primary school education to be recalled from their stations in West Africa. This was so that they could study at University College Cork and obtain degrees in arts, science, commerce, or else undertake additional training in medicine, catechetics and social work.[8] Once this training was completed, the sisters were sent back on mission where they continued to serve their local communities.

In the most recent years, the focus of the Irish Province has shifted from West Africa to Tanzania, a mission that began in 1991 which is still ongoing. This is in part due to the fact that Nigeria and Ghana became independent provinces with OLA sisters of their own to continue the work the Irish Province began. As for the most recent developments to Ardfoyle Convent itself, the nineties saw changes once again take place with the construction of Saint Raphael’s infirmary in 1994, and a subsequent extension in 2002.[9]

ROSTREVOR HOUSE

Rostrevor House in County Down, was the Irish Province’s second house. Before it was acquired, it was the seat of the Ross-of-Bladensburg family who came to Ulster from the North of England during the reign of James I.[10] The most famous figure from this family, Major General Robert Ross, was best known for his defeat of an American army in 1814 at Bladensburg for which his family was conferred the title ‘Bladensburg’.[11] The last occupant of the house, Mary Frances Harriett Angela Ross-of-Bladensburg sold the property to the OLA on December 31^st 1949 which at that stage was derelict, having been left vacant for a period of thirty years.[12]

 

 

From 1950 until its official opening on the 15th of September 1952, the sisters set to work making the house habitable with the help of local contractors. From 1952 onward, Rostrevor served as a juniorate where regular classes were undertaken and where aspirants prepared for state examinations. This changed in June of 1958 when Rostrevor was changed to a novitiate with the aspirants from Rostrevor being sent down to Ardfoyle where they attended the then newly formed secondary school.[13] In the mid sixties a huge two-phased building project was planned for Rostrevor which consisted of a new extension with classrooms and accommodation for thirty novices, as well as an additional special wing for infirm sisters, the latter of which was never built. In the late sixties with the number of novices decreasing, Rostrevor began to be used more and more for guests, convalescents, holiday makers, and retreats for the laity. The property also accommodated aspirants and brothers from other orders, namely aspirants of the Christian Brothers in the early seventies, as well as a group of Benedictine Monks from 1998 to 2003. Whilst in Rostrevor, the OLA sisters served the local community with some sisters teaching at a nearby secondary school, another sister gave a few years’ service in Saint Coleman’s College, and yet another served in a help centre for people suffering from alcohol addiction.[14] With the limited number of sisters in the house, the decision was taken to sell the property and move into more suitable accommodation. As such, Rostrevor house was sold in 2004 but the OLA have retained their presence in the north and continue to operate within their local community, working from a small convent house purchased in 2004.

CASTLEMACGARRETT

Castlemacgarrett, the third house of the OLA, is situated on the banks of the River Robe in County Mayo. This property was originally the seat of the Browne family, descendants of Anglo-Normans who arrived with Strongbow. Geoffrey Browne, born in 1664, was the first member of the family to take up residence at Castlemacgarrett which at that time was a dilapidated castle. He lived here with his wife Mary, the daughter of Daniel Prendergast, and their children until 1694, moving into a new home built on the property. It was this house that was occupied by several generations of the Browne family until it eventually burnt down in 1811. Following this disaster, the manor house was eventually rebuilt where it remained relatively unchanged until the last of the Brownes to occupy the estate, Lord Oranmore and Browne, built a large extension to the original mansion in the early part of the twentieth century.[15]

 

 

Castlemacgarrett was then bought on the OLA’s behalf at public auction in 1964 where it was subsequently turned into a private nursing home which opened in 1966. It took two years to make the necessary repairs as the house had been vacant for four years and had fallen into disrepair.[16] Castlemacgarrett remained open as a nursing home until its closure in 2005. Wishing to retain a presence in the West of Ireland, the sisters then moved into new accommodation in a housing estate in Claremorris. Here the OLA continued to work with the local community until the last of the sisters left, vacating the house on the 8^th of November 2022.

BALLINACURRA HOUSE

Although its exact origins are unclear, Ballinacura house first appears on an old road map drafted in 1770 and the first recorded owner was John Swete who was the high sheriff of Cork. In 1791, the house, described as a ‘small hunting lodge’, was sold along with 300 acres of land to the Bleasby family. In 1831 the two wings were added to the main house and the property remained with the Bleasby family and their descendants until around 1950 when John Danford, a talented sculptor, painter and writer purchased the house.[17]

 

 

John Danford, born in Dublin, spent much of his life outside of Ireland in the service of the British Government, first serving as 2nd Lieutenant of the Royal Field Artillery in 1938 and later serving in Sierra Leone. From there he went to Kano with the West African frontier Force and saw service in Burma in 1946. Upon returning home he applied to the British Council who assigned him a post in Ibadan, Nigeria, sometime between 1947 to 1948 whereupon he first came into contact with the OLA who were on mission there. Following this venture he served in Trinidad, Tabago, Manchester and again in Sierra Leone. On the 25^th of April, 1969 John Danford became ill after jumping into a river to save the life of his steward boy.[18] Over the course of his illness, he was nursed back to health by the Irish OLA and for this reason he made the decision to leave Ballinacurra house to the OLA at Ardfoyle. This decision was made with the understanding that his family would be permitted to remain in the house for as long as they wished after his death.[19] Following this event, John Danford retired to Ballinacura house later that same year where his family now lived. Unfortunately he was not able to enjoy his retirement very long as he passed suddenly on the 12^th of October 1970, aged just 57 years old.[20] In 1972 the property was handed over to the OLA sisters who used the property as a summer residence until 1981. John Danford’s parents continued to live in the house until both died in their late eighties in 1975.[21]  

 

The Irish Province of the OLA have had the great fortune of coming into the possession of a number of stately homes around Ireland by one means or another throughout their history. When they occupied these homes, the sisters breathed new life into these old buildings instilling them with a new purpose. Although only Ardfoyle Convent remains in the possession of the OLA, it can be said that the order’s past ownership of these properties has made a huge mark on the history of each of these sites. For Rostrevor, instead of being left derelict, this house became a centre for instruction and education for both aspirants and novitiates of the OLA, whilst also accommodating many visitors throughout its history of OLA ownership. Likewise, Castlemacgarrett was transformed into a home for elderly people who, thanks to the OLA, were able to spend their days in comfort in the idyllic countryside of Claremorris, County Mayo. Ballinacurra house whilst not utterly transformed by the presence of the OLA, stands as a testament to how the OLA’s work can have a profound impact on the people in their care. As for Ardfoyle convent itself, throughout over a century of ownership, the convent remains the administrative and spiritual centre of the Irish Province from which the OLA continues their work towards the betterment of health and the provision of education in marginalized communities around the world.

 

Bibliography

BallinacurraHouse, The History of Ballinacurra (2023), [accessed 16 October 2023]

OLA Archive, 100 Years: With Mary the Mother of Jesus (1976). IEOLA/02/21/02/01.

OLA Archive, Ardfoyle History (1985), IEOLA/03/01/01/10

OLA Archive, Ardfoyle – The Story of a House (2013), IEOLA/02/21/03/01

OLA Archive, Copy of indenture, 6 January 1913 (1913), IEOLA/03/01/01/01

OLA Archive, History of Rostrevor (c.1950), IEOLA/03/06/65/02.

OLA Archive, History of the OLA Presence in Rostrevor (2004), IEOLA/03/01/06/61

OLA Archive, Insertions (c.1970-c.1990), IEOLA/03/01/01/06

OLA Archive, Newspaper Cuttings and Press Statements, 1964-2005 (1964-2005), IEOLA/03/01/14/18

OLA Archive, O. L. A. History Retold by Sr. Edna (c.1950-c.1970), IEOLA/04/01/01/28

OLA Archive, Ross Castle (c.1950), IEOLA/03/06/65/05.

OLA Archive, Tributes to John Danford and Margaret Jago (1972-2001), IEOLA/03/01/05/14

Rice, S., ‘Provisional List no. 1061: Land Purchase Commission, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Land Act, 1925. Estate of Mary Frances Harriett Angela Ross of Bladensburg (spinster). County of Down. Record No. N.I. 984’, Belfast Gazette, 25 January 1929  [Accessed 12 October 2023]

Footnotes

[1] The Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles Archive [hereafter, ‘OLA Archive’], Insertions (c.1970-c.1990), IEOLA/03/01/01/06.

[2] OLA Archive, O. L. A. History Retold by Sr. Edna (c.1950-c.1970), IEOLA/04/01/01/28.

[3] OLA Archive, Ardfoyle History (1985), IEOLA/03/01/01/10.

[4] OLA Archive, Copy of indenture, 6 January 1913 (1913), IEOLA/03/01/01/01; OLA Archive, Ardfoyle – The Story of a House (2013), IEOLA/02/21/03/01.

[5] OLA Archive, Ardfoyle – The Story of a House (2013), IEOLA/02/21/03/01.

[6] OLA Archive, Ardfoyle – The Story of a House (2013), IEOLA/02/21/03/01; OLA Archive, 100 Years: With Mary the Mother of Jesus (1976). IEOLA/02/21/02/01.

[7] OLA Archive, Ardfoyle – The Story of a House (2013), IEOLA/02/21/03/01.

[8] OLA Archive, Ardfoyle – The Story of a House (2013), IEOLA/02/21/03/01.

[9] IEOLA/03/01/01/01; OLA Archive, Ardfoyle – The Story of a House (2013), IEOLA/02/21/03/01.

[10] OLA Archive, History of Rostrevor (c.1950), IEOLA/03/06/65/02.

[11] OLA Archive, Ross Castle (c.1950), IEOLA/03/06/65/05.

[12] OLA Archive, History of the OLA Presence in Rostrevor (2004), IEOLA/03/06/61; S. Rice, ‘Provisional List no. 1061: Land Purchase Commission, Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Land Act, 1925. Estate of Mary Frances Harriett Angela Ross of Bladensburg (spinster). County of Down. Record No. N.I. 984’, Belfast Gazette, 25 January 1929 <https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/396/page/75/data.pdf> [Accessed 12 October 2023], p.7.

[13] OLA Archive, History of the OLA Presence in Rostrevor (2004), IEOLA/03/01/06/61.

[14] Ibid.

[15] OLA Archive, Newspaper Cuttings and Press Statements, 1964-2005 (1964-2005), IEOLA/03/01/14/18.

[16] Ibid.

[17] BallinacurraHouse, The History of Ballinacurra (2023), <https://www.ballinacurra.com/history-of-the-house/> [accessed 16 October 2023].

[18] OLA Archive, Tributes to John Danford and Margaret Jago (1972-2001), IEOLA/03/01/05/14.

[19] BallinacurraHouse, The History of Ballinacurra (2023), <https://www.ballinacurra.com/history-of-the-house/> [accessed 16 October 2023].

[20] OLA Archive, Tributes to John Danford and Margaret Jago (1972-2001), IEOLA/03/01/05/14.

[21] Ibid.