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If you go to Fermoy in County Cork and take the road which runs to Mallow, you will find yourself in the Blackwater Valley, and in the distance you will see the dreaming blue of the Nagle Mountains. You will sense the serenity of the countryside where the river Blackwater goes quietly on its way, overhung by a tangle of green.

Much of this region was once the property of the Nagle family. In the protracted struggle for the possession of Ireland, the Nagles' loyalty to the Catholic king and the Catholic faith cost them extensive lands. However, when Garret Nagle married Ann Matthew, the family still owned extensive property at Ballygriffin. Here, in 1718, a daughter, their first child, was born. The dignified "Honora" of the little girl's baptism was soon replaced in the family circle by the affectionate diminutive, "Nano", the name which clung to her all through life. Today, this name, Nano Nagle, is known and revered in places remote from quiet Ballygriffin.

If you follow the path of Irish emigration across the world, you will find her known in England, Newfoundland, the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand. If you journey to India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Gautemala, Chile, Ecuador, you will discover those who speak her name with affection. You will not hear her spoken of as a distant heroine of history. In all these places, in all these rich and varied cultures, you will find the name of Nano Nagle associated with enterprises vigorously alive, enterprises which, however different in externals, all tend towards the nurture of human and Christian growth.

How did all this come to be? History provides the first step towards the answer. The time of Nano Nagle's birth was one of dark sorrow for Ireland. English supremacy had been consolidated by force, and English determination to hold what had been gained lay behind the long series of laws which sought to destroy Irish Catholic identity, whether that identity found expression in land ownership, civic position, culture or religion. The great houses, traditional source of civic and social leadership, were for the most part destroyed. Exile of bishops, priests, religious, left the Church equally without leadership. Without legal right to exist, forbidden to worship, forbidden to teach, it was a Church seemingly without hope of future. In an economy controlled for the benefit of the powerful, the poor sank into sub-human conditions, beyond the touch of hope.

In the family home at Ballygriffin, Nano Nagle was protected from many of the harsh realities of Irish life. She knew the love and care of good parents, and, as the eldest of seven brothers and sisters, she learned to share the love she received. Whether or not she ever participated in the furtive gatherings of Catholics around the Mass rocks or in the open fields, she learned in those early years the truth taken for granted by the Nagles: that God comes first, and that for His sake possessions, freedom, life itself must be risked if need be. Whether or not she ever attended the hedge school in the ruined home of her ancestors, Monanimy Castle, overlooking the Blackwater valley, she certainly learned in childhood that knowledge and learning are precious gifts, to be valued and shared.

Sent abroad for education, and later spending long periods in Paris, Nano grew to womanhood largely unaware of the distresses of her people. That understanding came later, when family circumstances brought her back to Ireland. She saw then with painful clarity how thoroughly the penal laws had done their work, particularly in the material and spiritual degradation of the poor. With what must have seemed to those who knew her surprising suddenness, Nano Nagle altered her whole way of life. After a brief period spent in a convent on the Continent, she went to live with her brother Joseph and his wife in Cork. There, in defiance of the laws which put a price on the head of a Catholic teacher, she began to devote her energies to the education of the poor girls. At first alone, later with the support of her family, particularly her Uncle Joseph Nagle, she established a whole network of schools in Cork. When the school day was over, she was to be seen walking the lanes of Cork to visit the sick and needy. It was said of her that there was not a poor cottage in Cork that she did not know.

Surmounting great difficulties, she introduced the Ursuline Order into Cork to perpetuate her work. When she found the Sisters unable to do all that was needed, she gathered about her the little group of women who were the nucleus of the Presentation Congregation. She died on 26 April 1784 with her work unfinished leaving four companions to carry forward her work.

The impact of her life in her own times and in succeeding generations has been out of all proportion to its external events. In the degraded condition of her people Nano Nagle recognised not only the effects of political oppression and economic change, but a call from God. She knew herself called to make some move against injustice. She felt compelled to help those deprived of hope and meaning, the opportunity to take hold of their unpromising present and to create a future for themselves and others.

The lantern she carried through the darkness in the streets and lanes of Cork became a symbol for the poor of God's love, touching and transforming the harshness of their lives and offering hope. Today that lantern has become the symbol of their mission for Presentation Sisters around the world.

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