maria obrien and the poor clares of harolds cross

???? beatrice bayley butler and sister Katherine butler it is almost impossible in a paper of this nature which deals with the charitable activities of the early 1800s to avoid being sidetracked by interwoven cross references the establishment of the poor clares at harolds cross provides such an interesting story that it is worth inclusion and also because later on in our paper the community once again enters the scene about the middle of the eighteenth century there was a convent of poor clares in north king street Dublin which later moved to a house in dorset street there it became known as the nunnery in the barley fields because it was then on open land to the north of the city however this location did not prove very satisfactory for an order of enclosed nuns as it was next door to the house of macklin the actor who with his friends rehearsed their performances in the garden which was too close to the sisters for comfort

 1800 Poor clares of dorset street the nuns lease of this house expired about 1800 and there was a real danger that the community might have to disband for want of accommodation it being very difficult in those penal days for nuns to lease properties as will be seen a little later   by a remarkable chance fr lenan a priest friend of the community together with a mr corballis was walking out in what was then almost open country in the region of harolds cross there being only a few houses in the area the priest was explaining the dilemma of the poor clares and as they walked along one of them suddenly noticed that a house with extensive grounds was for leasing this seemed to be the answer to their problem and mr corballis and a group of their friends including once again the ever charitable denis thomas obrien engaged in the project mr obrien providing funds to pay the rent for the first year negotiations had to be undertaken with the greatest circumspection as the following quotation from sarah Atkinson book will reveal the prejudice against popery and the romish religious person was so great that the landlords would not lease their houses to a community of nuns the intrusion of a convent and its appurtenances into a respectable neighbourhood would have counted highly detrimental to its interests and character a desirable house with sufficient garden room was offered at harolds cross and the nuns friends longed to see them become its owners it was procured for them so at any rate runs the story by a good friend a lawyer who gave the original proprietor no further information than it was wanted by a lady with a great many sisters and the mother abbess and her community were in possession of the piano before the inhabitants of the vicinity had any suspicious of the objectional character of their new neighbours when the truth burst upon their indignant minds expulsion was impossible all they could do was to hide the abode of the lady and her sisters as much as possible from public view  and this they proceeded to do by the erection of a very high wall this proved to have been about the best service that could have been rendered to the daughters of st clare who were quite as anxious to exclude the great world from their view as the respectable people of the fashionable suburb were impatient to wall up the nuns           At the time mr corballis and his friends were negotiating for the poor clares mr denis thomas obriens daughter maria (not to be confused with his daughter in law anna maria nee ball ) was deeply involved in the management of a small orphanage in hendrick street which had been started by two working men concerned over the future of a little girl the orphaned daughter of a work-mate and fearing for her safety morally and physically they set about collecting literally the pennies of their colleagues to finance the project 

1801 Some of the more well-known examples were the Maria Orphans Society in Hawkins Street, This society was founded in 1801 by the well-known philanthropist Anna Maria O’Brien, sister of Mother Frances Ball, founder of the Loreto Sisters.   O’Brien had helped establish the Maria Female Orphans society in Hawkins Street  c. 1801, which was later transferred to the Poor Clares at Harold’s Cross

1806 july 6th at the time mr corballis and his friends were negotiating for the poor clares mr denis thomas obriens daughter maria (not to be confused with his daughter in law anna maria nee ball ) was deeply involved in the management of a small orphanage in hendrick street which had been started by two working men concerned over the future of a little girl the orphaned daughter of a work-mate and fearing for her safety morally and physically they set about collecting literally the pennies of their colleagues to finance the project   the charity ultimately came under the direction of miss obrien and mr corballis and mrs obrien were also involved financially when the poor clares were moving to harolds cross the orphanage was contemplating taking over two small houses in Longford street but mr obrien with the vision that seemed to go with all his undertakings persuaded his committee that it would be much better to move out to the healthy air of harolds cross and so it came about that the orphan house as it was always called in the early years was built and opened on july 6th 1806 with thirty orphans from the hendrick street house    denis thomas obrien was the main financial support of an orphanage in hendrick street which maria managed until 1806 when they transferred it to the poor clare nuns whose very survival in Dublin owed much to the obriens      denis thomas obrien he was also treasurer of the lay college maynooth     Some of the more well-known examples were the Maria Orphans Society in Hawkins Street, This society was founded in 1801 by the well-known philanthropist Anna Maria O’Brien, sister of Mother Frances Ball, founder of the Loreto Sisters. The orphanage was transferred to Harold’s Cross in 1806 where it was run by the Poor Clares

1808 mrs obrien and mary aikenhead heard a rumour that daniel murray was looking to set up a new nuns order when visiting a mutual friend in the poor clare convent harolds cross the young nun there cecilia lynch had been one of the little band of marys friends in cork who had worked so assiduously on behalf of the poor    the story goes that at the visit sister Ignatius as she then was told her friends that dr murray had asked her not to finalise her entry into the poor clares until his foundation was made   but she added not feeling up to the responsibility of a new order I preferred remaining where I am oh cecilia exclaimed mary very earnestly why did you not wait mrs obrien impressed by the feeling conveyed in these words reported them to dr murray who from that time onwards regarded mary aikenhead as a possible candidate for the congregation mary returned to cork   

1809 In the beginning the poor clares as a strictly enclosed order did not have anything to do with its administration but later on miss obrien became seriously ill for a time dr murray wishing to ensure it would have more permanent status asked the poor clares if they would consider taking over its management their annals show that this proposal was put to the vote at a meeting of their council and agreed upon at this time they were still living in a smallish house not connected to the orphan house and in fact there was a wall between the two houses as a small door had to be opened for the nuns to go through and where this was is still visible in the convent grounds 

1810 when miss obrien recovered her health she returned to work with the orphan house and kept all the accounts and was largely responsible for the financial work her brother john obrien anna marias husband being the treasurer to the committee           

1814 The poor clares harolds cross convent was begun and completed in 1846 

1817 miss obrien may have been a rather determined lady and have had slight differences of opinion with the poor clare sisters three short records from their council meeting of 1817 read as follows  1) when miss obrien is residing in the orphan house no religious is to enter her apartments further than the committee room for the purpose of transacting the business of the charity 2) miss obrien is not to encroach on the enclosure beyond the garden and chapel 3) the small kitchen in the orphan house is to be given entirely for her use 

any other information on the above events would be gratefully received 

see also leinster offaly parish of rahan residents of rahan lodge for more information on maria obrien 

see also leinster dublin parish of saint marys 33 rutland square now parnell square denis thomas obrien