History
On September 5th, 1833, Mother Teresa Ball and a small group of nuns took possession of No. 58, Harcourt Street, Dublin. Here Mother Teresa proposed to open a Day School. Four years previously, Catholic Emancipation had been granted and the Catholic Church was emerging from the Catacombs. Catholic parents were looking for schools to educate their children. Eleven years earlier, Mother Teresa had founded Loreto House, Rathfarnham and now, owing to increasing numbers of vocations, she intended to extend her work of education to the city.
On the 13th of the same month, Archbishop Murray celebrated the first Mass in the new Convent and, on September 23rd, the school opened its doors to receive pupils. Mother Teresa had been told that there was a great demand for such a school but, on the opening day, only one pupil presented herself! After a few days seven children arrived but, five days later, five of them were removed by their parents, who said, “The confinement was injurious to their health”! This gave rise to unpleasant rumours about the school and its future seemed in jeopardy. However, the Sisters held on, with the encouragement of the Archbishop. These storms passed and by January 1834, there were 27 pupils. There were four nuns on the original staff: Mother Xaveria McCarthy, the Superior, Sister Bernard Blake, Sister Magdalen Lalor and Sister Ignatia Arthur. As the need arose, they were supplanted by lay professors. No copy of the original Prospectus has bee found, but we may presume that the curriculum was similar to that followed in Rathfarnham at this time. The subjects taught were: “The English, French, Italian and Spanish languages Grammatically; History, Geography, the Use of the Globes, Arithmetic, Writing; every kind of Useful and Ornamental Needlework; Painting on Velvet, Satin and Wood.” Drawing, Dancing and Music were extra subjects.