History
We hear no more about the Day School until 1841. By that time, more accommodation was required, and Mother Teresa looked out for a more spacious home for the Day School. This she found when No. 53 St. Stephen’s Green, was put up for sale. This beautiful Georgian house, with its twin, No. 52, was built by the Huguenot Banker, Latouche, in the previous century. Charles Latouche, son or grandson of the Latouche who built the house, lived at Marley Grange, beside Rathfarnham, and was a great friend of Mother Teresa Ball, so he may well have used his good offices to help her to buy the house. The school was moved from Harcourt Street to the Green on October 6th, 1841. A boarding school was then started and, in 1846, Mother Teresa Ball notes in the “Annals” that there are 20 boarders and 30 day scholars in “The Green.” There are various other entries concerning “The Green” in the “Annals”, which Mother Teresa Ball kept carefully until her last illness in 1860. She tells us that on January 11th 1844, Daniel O’Connell visited “The Green” and “placed his two grandchildren at No. 53 St. Stephen’s Green, where he received an address.” On May 24th 1857 “A Free School was commenced at Loreto, Stephen’s Green. It was completed 26th July, on which day High Mass was celebrated and “Agamemnon” was acted by the Boarders.”
After this time, there is a long blank space, during which we have no further information about the progress of the Green. Mother Teresa Ball died in 1861, and was succeeded as Mother General by Mother Scholastica Somers (1861-1879). Mother Xaveria Fallon was elected in January 1880. She took a keen interest in Education, and made a number of changes in the Loreto system. She introduced what the nuns called “the vertical system.” This meant that, instead of teaching a number of subjects, each nun specialised in one or two subjects, which she taught right through the school, thus ensuring continuity of method and avoiding waste of time at the beginning of the year, as each teacher knew exactly what she had taught the children during the previous year. Mother Xaveria also re-organised the teaching of Religious Knowledge in the schools, drawing up programmes for each Grade, with examinations at the end of each year, set for all the Loreto schools. This programme included Christian Doctrine, Sacred Scripture and Church History.