“To the very antipodes”: nineteenth-century Dominican Sister-teachers in Ireland and New Zealand

Abstract

This paper examines the educational and religious lives of Dominican Sisters in nineteenth-century Ireland and New Zealand. It considers developments in Irish society and culture that shaped the educational mission of Dominican Sisters, as well as some of the challenges facing 10 Sisters who, in 1871, journeyed from Dublin to establish a foundation in Dunedin, New Zealand. Drawing on previously unpublished archival sources, including Sisters’ letters “home” to Ireland, this paper explores ways in which the expectations of the Founder Sisters were initially shaped by “Old World” social and cultural structures and their dependence on their motherhouse in Sion Hill, Dublin. It examines changes in the lives of Sisters as their links with Ireland diminished and they began to reshape their educational mission around a new cultural and religious identity. This paper challenges educational historians to acknowledge the role Catholic sister-teachers played in the formation of national education systems.