The financing of convents by women in Ireland, 1774–1860

Abstract

ABSTRACT The rapid growth in the number of convents in the nineteenth century, and the strong links between many of these foundations and Ireland, has been noted in much scholarship. Generally the impetus in such scholarship has been to understand the expansion of congregations, and the range of their ministries. The stage before such expansion is the ‘founding’ stage: the period in which congregations were first established, and put down their roots. This stage is the subject of this article, and its aim is to interrogate the question of how women funded their first convents. In the article, we examine in detail the financial records of some of the first convents established in Ireland, that later made foundations in North America and elsewhere. We demonstrate how women played a key role in financing the founding stages, through a careful scrutiny of convent account books, annals and other archival records.