Station 7 – Cove Lane

History of Cove Lane

Nano Nagle’s first schools were located on the south side of Cork city, on Cove Lane. The first school was located behind a bakery so that it was hidden from the British. Nano later set up the convent at this site, where she lived with the other Presentation Sisters.

This laneway before us, although over 200 years after Nano, is a reminder for us of those small and twisted, almost claustrophobic, lanes, including Cove Lane, in which Nano hurried and bustled about her business in Cork city. Imagine her at night, often in the wind and pouring rain, battling her way along Cove Lane with her lantern, to the many garrets and hovels where she brought comfort, food, medicine and Christ.

St Mary’s College – Cove Lane: the laneway between the Convent building and the Cathedral. Photos taken in 2024 during a Staff Spirituality Day.

The Presentation Sisters’ Chapel

In 1872, a Chapel was added to the Cathedral (on the right as you enter Cove Lane), built for the Sisters, and students, to use. The furnishing and fit-out of this Chapel is said to have been financed through the dowries of the first Tasmanian Presentation Sister, Teresa Horner and later her sister Julia. Access to this Chapel was via a covered passageway, allowing the Sisters to enter and exit the Chapel without being seen by the public. This structure has since been removed but evidence of it can be seen on the stone walls as you walk through Cove Lane.

Photos of the former Presentation Sisters Chapel attached to the Cathedral.

During the renovations of the Cathedral in the early 21st century, the Sisters’ Chapel was handed over to the Cathedral Parish and the Adrian Doyle Chapel was opened, in 2014, on the second floor of the Convent building extension.

Left: The current Adrian Doyle Chapel located on the second floor of the Convent building extension. Right: The same room as a dormitory for boarders.

The Windows of the Adrian Doyle Chapel

In 2018, a series of windows, designed by Carol Prichard, were installed in the Adrian Doyle Chapel. Five of these windows depict the creation story of Genesis 1. The sixth window, designed by St Mary’s College students, is in honour of Mary. It reminds us of three key events in her life which are celebrated each year at St Mary’s College: her Presentation, the Annunciation and her Assumption. This window, known as the Presentation Window, can be seen if you look up to the second floor as you walk through Cove Lane.

Left: The fifth of the Creation Windows. Centre: The Presentation Window. Right: Archbishop Adrian Doyle blessing the Chapel windows in 2018.

Reflection

To Nano Nagle

Take down your lantern from its niche and go out!

You may not dwell in firelight certainties, secure from drifting fog of doubt and fear.

You may not build yourself confining walls and say: ‘Thus far, and thus, and thus far shall I walk, and these things shall I do, and nothing more.’

Go out! For need calls loudly in the winding lanes and you must seek Christ there.

Your pilgrim heart shall urge you still one pace beyond, and love shall be your lantern-flame.

Sr Raphael Consedine pbvm

Anecdotes

In front of the entrance to Cove Lane were, in the early 20th Century, several small wooden huts which were built to house some of the Sisters who contracted Tuberculosis. According to the thinking of the time, to be housed separately with exposure to fresh air was the best treatment. The bedding of these Sisters was often thrown out and burnt, as were their eating utensils. The huts were in front of what is now the Board Room. Many of the Sisters with Tuberculosis died, usually in the convent, surrounded by their loving Sisters.