of the sweet candied peel and was eventually relieved of his duties. Following his dismissal, he stretched out on the sofa in the front room and started singing, but he was quickly ordered out of the room by his father who could not bear the racket.
Mary Brigid later filled the pages of her book, The Home-Life of Pádraig Pearse (1934), with similar stories about their childhood antics and, invariably, cast Patrick as the central protagonist, ‘Pat was the leading incentive and presiding spirit of our small company.’43 She related an incident when the Pearses visited their half-sister Emily’s house. The children were happily playing tennis and other games in a field behind the house until they were ordered out by the landlord. Their niece Emily explained to the landlord that he had agreed to let them play in the field and Patrick cheekily retorted, ‘then we will play!’ and so they did.44
As the Pearse children grew older, Patrick and Margaret focused increasingly on their education and achieving excellence in their studies, thus allowing less time to partake in the fun they enjoyed as young children. Memories of their idyllic childhood remained with them throughout their lives. In adult life, Patrick wrote in his autobiography of his desire to return to the serenity of his childhood and ‘to be at home always, with the same beloved faces, the same familiar shapes and sounds’.45 They squabbled, as all siblings do, but James and Margaret ensured that their children grew up in a stable, close-knit and loving family; a happy home where the children’s creative talents flourished.
CHAPTER 2
From Girlhood to Womanhood
I have never loved any place better than those old places; or any voice better than those old voices. I have been faithful to them in my heart even when I have deliberately turned my feet from them, seeking far places and far voices.1
Patrick Pearse
Eighteen ninety-one was a significant year in the education of the Pearse family as three of the four children, Margaret, Patrick and Willie, started secondary school. Patrick and Willie were enrolled at the Christian Brothers School (CBS) in Westland Row and Margaret, aged thirteen, commenced her studies at the Sisters of the Holy Faith School, Clarendon Street, which opened in 1873. Margaret excelled at school, receiving first place in all subjects. She had a particular talent for public speaking, and French, music and embroidery were her favourite classes. Margaret praised the school’s monthly system of oral examinations in all subjects which created a competitive environment among the students. She was diligent and often studied through the night for the monthly examinations set by visiting sisters from the Holy Faith convent in Glasnevin. Margaret’s exceptional memory ensured that she could easily memorise lengthy texts and data. She enjoyed being challenged intellectually and eagerly anticipated the weekly visits of the Vincentian priest Fr John Gowan (co-founder of the Sisters of the Holy Faith order) who invariably posed difficult linguistic and mathematical questions.
On one occasion, he recited the numbers one to ten in Latin. In preparation for his next visit, Margaret, the school’s most exemplary student, was asked by the Headmistress to memorise as many English derivatives of the ten Latin numerals as she could. Margaret succeeded in memorising seventy derivatives which greatly impressed Fr Gowan.2 Another frequent visitor to the school was Fr Murphy, a curate at Westland Row Church, who encouraged the girls to improve their public speaking. Margaret was presented with several prizes by him for her recitation of poetry; her favourite prize was a needlework set which she treasured forever.3
Throughout her life, Margaret spoke in glowing terms of her alma mater and of teachers including Sr Mary Winifred, the Headmistress, Sr Mary Juliana, who taught French, and Sr Mary Joseph, who taught a variety of subjects. As many of her teachers were in their early twenties, Margaret proudly observed that ‘we were [all] young together.’4 In the Centenary Magazine of the Holy Faith Sisters of 1967, she reminisced about the school’s annual Prize Distribution Day where students showcased their talents in recitation and the performance of instrumental and vocal music. In the article, she recalled two poems, Ave Maria and The Uninvited Guest (known as St Gregory’s Guest) by John Greenleaf Whittier, which she had recited at the school’s Distribution Day almost seventy-five years previously. She described it as ‘[o]ne of the happiest days in Clarendon Street’.5 When the Holy Faith Past Pupils’ Union was established in 1933, Margaret became president of the Clarendon branch and was honoured to be elected honorary life president of the Past Pupils’ Union.6
The Pearse home was a religious one, but Margaret’s strong religious faith was also nurtured at school and through membership of the Sodality of the Holy Angels. On Tuesdays, she attended recitations of the Litany of the Angels and, on Saturdays, she participated in the Sodality of the Holy Angels. Many of these religious practices she acquired as a child were continued in adulthood. After completing her studies at the Holy Faith School, she studied for a qualification in domestic economy at the Rathmines Technical Institute (College of Commerce) and, in 1907, she received a certificate of competency from the Leinster College of Irish.
Patrick and Willie’s experience of secondary education at the CBS would have been similar to Margaret’s. The Christian Brothers’ approach, which promoted rote learning and exam-focused curricula, suited Patrick and he passed four grades of the Intermediate examination between 1893 and 1896. A system of rote memorisation did not appeal to Willie and he struggled academically in his years at the CBS. He sat a preparatory examination in 1895, but failed all subjects except Irish. In 1897, aged fifteen, Willie enrolled in evening classes at the Metropolitan School of Art in Kildare Street, Dublin. He enrolled initially as a part-time student, as he was also working during the day as an apprentice sculptor at the family business alongside his father and half-brother, James Vincent, who was a stone carver. He remained registered as a student, some years as a part-time student, but occasionally in full-time study, for the next fifteen years.7 Willie later attended art courses in Paris and at the Royal College of Art in London.
Due to her illness, it is unlikely that Mary Brigid received a formal education like her siblings. She did not attend Mrs Murphy’s School and is not listed as a student of the Holy Faith School. Although she was briefly enrolled at the Metropolitan School of Art with Willie and took a course in German at the Rathmines College of Commerce in 1915, it seems likely that she was primarily educated at home.8 As her older siblings became increasingly occupied with their studies and school commitments, Mary Brigid spent much of the day on her own. Patrick’s schoolwork, in particular, claimed most of his attention and, consequently, he could not spend time with Mary Brigid reading to her or teaching her the Irish language. She fondly remembered the time they spent together in childhood, but was conscious that he was no longer a child and lamented his transition to adulthood:
Although my brother always retained his boyishness, he grew up sooner than any of us! I well remember how surprised I was – and rather contemptuous, I fear – when I first heard him call ‘mother’ instead of ‘mama’, as we all used to do before! Afterwards came a queer feeling of blankness as I began to realise that Pat was rapidly becoming – a man!9
Mary Brigid showed considerable aptitude for music from a young age and was recognised as the most musically talented of the Pearse family. As a young girl, Patrick asked her to set one of his poems, entitled ‘Mother’, to music. When Mary Brigid later performed her arrangement of the song for her own mother, ‘tears of pride and joy came into her eyes as she listened, gazing proudly and fondly upon her “boy” ’.10 Mary Brigid, Patrick and Margaret received piano lessons; Patrick, however, did not progress past simple arrangements of ‘Vesper Hymn’ and ‘Nelly Bly’. It seems that, although Patrick maintained an interest in music all his life and attended performances of operas by the German composer Richard Wagner in Dublin, he had little aptitude for music. Mary Brigid noted that, despite her best efforts to teach him, he never mastered the art of singing:
I used to try him with the scale sometimes, and the result was always excruciatingly funny! He would start off with a most tremendous seriousness and intone in rather a wavering manner: ‘Doh!’ More quaveringly still, and very much out of tune, would come ‘Ray!’ Then, with an appalling suddeness, he would go completely off the scale, and his ‘Me!’ would be at least five notes too high!11
Unlike Patrick, Mary Brigid went on to become an accomplished pianist and later studied