Irish Nuns and Education in the Anglophone World

A Transnational History

Deirdre Raftery

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9783031462009
• eBook ISBN: 9783031462016
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Winner of the Triennial Conference of the History of Women Religious Distinguished Book Award 2025

This book charts the history of how Irish-born nuns became involved in education in the Anglophone world. It presents a heretofore undocumented study of how these women left Ireland to establish convent schools and colleges for women around the globe. It challenges the dominant narrative that suggests that Irish teaching Sisters, also commonly called nuns, were part of the colonial project, and shows how they developed their own powerful transnational networks. Though they played a role in the education of the ‘daughters of the Empire’, they retained strong bonds with Ireland, reproducing their own Irish education in many parts of the Anglophone world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Entering Convents: Irish Women, Kinship Networks and Recruitment to Religious Life in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
• 2. Preparing for Religious Life: The Training of Aspirants, Postulants and Novices in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
• 3. Outward Bound: Irish Women Religious and Their Journeys to Overseas Foundations in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
• 4. Founding and Teaching: Education Provision by Irish Nuns in the Nineteenth-Century Anglophone World
• 5. Expanding the Reach of Irish Nuns in Education: Convents, Schools and Academies in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
• 6. Conclusion: The Need for Transnational Histories of Women Religious
• Back Matter