Where is Sundays Well?

[KarenM]

Can anyone tell me where Sundays Well is?

The address I have on a birth certificate is

5 Convent Place, Sundays Well, Co. Cork

Thanks
Karen

[cardiff Irish]

hi Karen, When driving westwards out of Cork City ...youll pass UCC  on the left....... another 400-600 metres take a right over the river then working back in to the city is Sunday's well.

[Sean O Callaghan]

Sundays Well is a lovely, old and refined area of Cork City.  It is, as someone else noted, on the Western side of the city and is a beautiful spot.  I remember many a sunny day spent walking there.  The houses are elegant and many lead down to the river and have large gardens.  The area is named after a well which existed in living memory- Tobar Ri an Domhnaigh, in Gaelic- the well of the King of Sunday.  Convent Walk is a very nice place indeed.

Ceallachain

[KarenM]

Thanks Ceallachain for the information.

What kind of place would be at 5 Convent?  Is there a hospital or something?  Her husband has a different address on the birth certificate.  I'm just curious as to why they wouldn't be living at the same place.

Thanks
Karen

[Sean O Callaghan]

Karen, Hi!

There used to be a very large Convent in Sundays Well, which is itself quite a small area, (and I would imagine that this is the Convent the streetname refers to) named "The Good Shepherd Convent".  I say "used to be" because it ceased to be a convent some years ago and then was burnt to the ground shortly afterwards, the spot now being occupied, I think, by apartments, although I am going on memory.  I knew the convent well- it was very large indeed, had been around many, many years and was run by the Good Shepherd Nuns.  Its history goes well back into the 1800s.  It was basically an institution and housed a large number of women who had either mental problems or were what was then regarded as being 'fallen' ie pregnant outside of marriage.  The women would work within the convent, and I am almost 100% sure that a Magdalen Laundry was run there.  I was in there in the early 1980s on a visit, but my memories of the place are vague.  I do remember it being a very busy place, with a lot of work going on.  One notable and famous inhabitant in the early 1900s was a little girl known as 'Little Nellie of Holy God', a child noted for her holiness.  She died at a very young age and her grave is in the grounds and is beloved of older Corkonians.  For many years you could visit her room in the convent.

I am not in Cork at the mo, but was there last week and will be again in a month or so from now.  There are Convent Places in other areas of Cork, which is something to bear in mind, two of them not a million miles from Sundays Well.  In fact, the more accurate name for what is colloquially known as Convent Place in Sundays Well, is actually probably Convent Avenue.  When I am next in Cork, I can try to search out the house for you and establish the streetname with more accuracy.  I spend a lot of time around Sundays Well anyway.

Ceallachain

[Sean O Callaghan]

Just an addendum to my last post.  It is possible, I suppose, that this lady had been institutionalised for one reason or another- hence the two different addresses.  The Convent was a large complex, so the number '5' might refer to an address in the residential part of that complex.  People might be institutionalised there for any number of reasons, including post-natal depression etc.  Where was the other address?  It is likely that the archives centre in Cork might have a record of those who were admitted to the Convent.  What year are we talking about- 1901 or 1911?

Ceallachain

[KarenM]

Hi Ceallachain,

Thanks for the information.  Very interesting!  This is what I know, via birth and marriage certificate.

Susan Dawkins and Thomas R. Shorter marriage certificate
Dated 2nd July, 1907.  Residence at the time of marriage is Tullaheen Whitegate Co. Cork. 

John William Shorter
Date & Place of Birth:  10th November, 1907
5 Convent Place, Sundays Well
Name & Surname and Dwelling Place of Father:
Thomas Reuben Shorter, Lisselan, Clonakilty
Name & Surname of Mother
Susan Shorter, formerly Dawkins
Rank of Father:  Butler
Signature & Residence of Informant
Susan Shorter, mother, 5 Convent Place, Sundays Well

So, we can see that she was pregnant when they got married.  By 1909 they were in England when my gr-uncle Ted was born and then in 1910, they came to Canada.

Interesting about Little Nellie, my grandmother, Susan & Thomas's first daughter, her name is Ellen, but they called her Nellie.

Thanks so much for all your help and information.
Karen

[Sean O Callaghan]

Mmm- Yes, then. She had more than likely been admittted to the Convent until the birth.  It would certainly not have been a pleasant place to be, as often the women were treated less than sympathetically.  However, the fact that she married during the pregnancy would mean that he baby would not have been taken from her, as would normally have happened in such circumstances.

She travelled quite a way from Whitegate to Cork, but I suppose that the Good Shepherd Convent would have been the nearest place for her.  Clonakilty is a beautiful area-- now very much a gourmet paradise!

The 'Reuben' in Thomas's name interests me. 

Ceallachain

[KarenM]

Wow, thanks for the information!!  This is fantastic!

So, once the baby was born, she was allowed to leave?  Do you think there would be records of her admittance and if so, how would I go about getting them?

Reuben interests me as well.  Where would it come from?  His parents are plain names, John and Mary.  His siblings as well, just your regular, John, William, Jane and Mary. 

Not sure what to make of Reuben.  Any thoughts?  He was from Surrey, England.

Karen