George’s Hill
In 1766, Teresa Mulally established a school for poor Catholic girls in Mary’s Lane, Dublin. Her school was similar to the schools run by Nano Nagle in Cork. The two women regularly wrote to each other and Mulally visited Nagle in Cork.
Teresa Mulally never became a nun, but she was inspired by Nano Nagle to build a convent in Dublin. She hoped for some financial assistance from Nano Nagle, but this was not forthcoming for as Nagle wrote: I wish it was in my power to do what you proposed…and I should have readily undertaken it. But I am so much involved in debt…. So you must imagine…. how little I am at present in a situation of making a Foundation in Dublin. I can hardly at present support the one I have made here.
Listen
Branching Out – Sr Marie Therese King, George’s Hill
Undeterred, Mulally built her convent and in 1789 she she and two teachers moved into the solid and unpretentious four-storey building. The building was incomplete and Mulally wrote to a friend that there are constant fires kept in such rooms as there are [grates] in. I find I must postpone the finishing of many things to a future day as the expense far exceeds my [income]but have the comfort to say it is thought a good building.
Despite Mulally’s hope that the Presentation Sisters would move into the convent she had built it took until 1794 before two Dublin women, who had trained as nuns in Cork, returned to begin the Dublin foundation.
George’s Hill Convent – Family Tree
Teresa Mullaly
Read further about Teresa Mullaly here
