300 years part 9 [extracts from Sister Maire Kealy’s book From Channel Row to Cabra]
It is possible to chart the decline of the Channel Row community by comparing the numbers in the community, in the boarding school and the parlour boarders in certain years. Putting the value of the bonds held by the community alongside that information, it is easy to see how they came to be in such a sorry state at the end of the century.
1729 was a year when the nuns were well established in Dublin; in 1744 the numbers in the school were down to nine. 1756 and 1767 were years in which there were accurate figures for the number of nuns in the community and in 1792 it would seem that things had gone beyond recovery. The community was experiencing great difficulties, their financial state was grave and their numbers were falling fast.
COMPARATIVE TABLE
| YEAR | NUNS | BOARDERS[PUPILS] | PARLOUR BOARDERS | INCOME |
| 1729 | 22 | 20 | 10+Servants | £5080 |
| 1744 | 16 | 9 | 12 | £3400 |
| 1756 | 27 | 18 | 21+Servants | £6250 |
| 1767 | 19/20 | 3 | 6 | £3600 |
| 1792 | 5 | 0 | ||
| £1800 [good] | NOT KNOWN | £1800 [good] | ||
| £1100 [bad] |
[good = money in hand; bad = money owed to nuns but the recovery of debt doubtful]
From Sr. Maris Stella McKeown, Archivist, Mission Area of Ireland
For more details, see this website link WHO WE ARE, with Drop down menu –HISTORY and BOOKS.
The drop down menu in WHAT WE DO provides insights into how and where the seed, planted in Dublin in 1717, has grown and sprouted other branches in the following three centuries.