Nano Nagle: A Catholic Hero

Nano Nagle, born 1718 in the Irish town of Ballygriffin, is world renowned as a Catholic hero. At a time in Ireland’s history where the Penal Laws were still in place, many Catholics were poor as the laws sought to take property, possessions and money, leaving many in a state of poverty. Nano started schools for Catholics that were the poorest of the poor. She started a whole network of schools in the city of Cork, with over four hundred pupils in seven parishes. Nagle is seen as a significant catholic figure because she challenged the laws of her country, and the opinions of others, to do what was right. She inspired many other Catholics, her Presentation sisters, and the Blessed Edmund Rice to follow in her footsteps and fight for the right

Born to wealthy landowner Garret Nagle and mother Ann, the Nagles managed to hold onto most of their land and money during the penal years. Nano and her sister Ann were smuggled to Paris, where they received a full Catholic education and also enjoyed a sophisticated life in French society. According to one account, she had a hectic social life in Paris – “balls, parties and theatre outings, all the glamour of a life of a wealthy young lady” (Maonlai, 2009). It was after one of these said parties that she noticed a group of people, huddled in a church doorway, and was taken aback by the contrast between her wealthy, privileged life and that of the Paris poor (Brennan, The Story of Nano, 2008). One day, after returning to Ireland, Nano asked her sister if she would make a dress out of a bolt of silk she had bought from Paris. Ann confessed that she had sold the silk to give the money to a poor family. Nano was surprised, and shortly after this, Ann died. This event had a great impact on Nano (MacGinley, 2011). After this event, Nano went back to Paris to discover her Vocation, through praying as a member of a cloistered religious order. This did not satisfy Nano, as she was a woman of actions and not words (MacGinley, 2011). Instead of praying for the unfortunate, she would rather help the unfortunate directly (Brennan, The Story of Nano, 2008). While she was there, however, a fellow member of

Discovery would mean certain imprisonment. This challenged Nano to work hard, using all her available funds given to her through the death of her father, and later the support of her brother and uncle, to build up seven schools educating 400 students across Cork. At the time, poverty had overtaken the Catholic population of Ireland, and consequently Nagle had to work in new ways in order to impose and teach the beliefs of the Catholic Church onto the faithful, through her network of underground schools. Nagle taught students life skills so that they could challenge the cycle of catholic poverty (Brennan, The Story of Nano, 2008). This was something the Catholic Church had not taught her (Connell, 1980), and she had to work hard to ensure that Catholics became prosperous once again in