A Quiet Life: The Cork Poor Clares

Piece Description

The Poor Clare order of nuns can be traced back to the year 1212, when an 18-year old Italian girl from Assisi, Clare Offreduccio, left home to become the first female follower of a group which had assembled around the preaching friar, Francis; he would later come to be known as Saint Francis of Assisi and she as Saint Clare of Assisi. Coming as she did from a noble family, her association with an independent religious grouping was frowned upon, so she was forced to leave home in order to follow her calling. Clare’s vision was to live a radically poor life, as a way of embracing or embodying the crucified Christ, and she lobbied successive popes to grant a seal of approval to this "privilege of poverty". At the time, monasteries of women did not exist without land and associated revenues to support them. Her requests were initially rejected by Rome. Clare persevered in drafting a "Form of Life", a unique and original set of rules by which the order would abide. These rules, and the order as a whole, were eventually given papal approval in 1253, just before Clare’s death. In 1255, Clare of Assisi was granted sainthood.

The Poor Clares monastery in Cork was completed in 1914, funded by a local businessman, Walter Dwyer. It is located in a middle-class suburb of Cork city, close to University College Cork and the Bons Secours Hospital (in fact, two members of the current community are graduates from UCC). Currently, the Cork community numbers eight women, each of whom live a "monastic, enclosed, contemplative life", taking vows of chastity, poverty, obedience and enclosure. The last admission to the Cork community was in 1999.

Community members have no direct physical contact with the public. Visitors are welcome to call during certain hours, where they are greeted through a grille in a meeting room. Apart from routine visits to the doctor or dentist a few times a year, the sisters do not venture outside the enclosed parts of the monastery; a caretaker organises groceries and other needs involving contact with the outside world. The sisters’ own daily activities consist of answering correspondence, the upkeep and maintenance of the monastery and a rigorous schedule of prayer and benediction (a daily rosary takes place in the monastery chapel).

This hour-long piece was made by local Cork independent producer Conor O’Toole and features extensive interviews with five of the nuns who live in the monastery on College Road, as well as a self-recorded "guided tour" of the building (the first time ever a microphone has been behind the monastery walls). Through their words, a picture emerges of a community of women set apart from 21st century life - as most people know it – and of a little-known corner of Cork’s broad cultural heritage.

Since its foundation in Cork in 1914, the Poor Clares monastery has been an integral part of the local community around College Road, and Cork city in general. The community survives solely on donations and has done since its foundation. The order is enclosed, so that as well as vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, those joining also take a vow of enclosure, in order to pursue a monastic, contemplative life (although the monastery has extensive grounds, these are surrounded by forbidding walls on all sides). Contact with the public is restricted to set visiting times and meetings are conducted in rooms divided by a grille partition, which stands as a symbol of the nuns’ enclosed existence. No members of the public are allowed into the enclosed section of the monastery, which consists of living areas, kitchen, garden etc..

In order to give as full a picture of the nuns’ daily lives as possible, one of the community agreed to self-record a "guided tour" of the enclosed part of the monastery (using a portable Dictaphone). This footage paints a fascinating picture of a part of Cork city not open to public view (which includes a cemetery containing the remains of every community member who has been and gone). These recordings are interspersed with the interviews to give an impression of the daily life and routine of these women. Ultimately, despite the sacrifices involved in their chosen way of life, these women come across as fulfilled in their work and happy. However, the fact that the monastery is "embedded" within the local neighbourhood means that ordinary life outside the walls remains close at hand, perhaps tantalisingly so, providing a constant reminder of the true meaning of these women's vocations.