St Patrick’s Home was one of only 2 inebriates’ reformatories for Roman Catholic men in Ireland. The other was the state reformatory at Ennis in County Clare. St Patrick’s was a certified reformatory. There was another certified reformatory in Belfast catering for up to 12 Protestant men.
My great great uncle Michael Rock was sent to St Patrick’s Home in June 1909. He had been there for a year when he assaulted another patient resulting in a three month prison sentence in Waterford Jail. I have been unable to discover if he returned to the home after his release.
The home was located at Convent Hill, Hennessy’s Road, Waterford, in premises built in 1798 by the Presentation Nuns. The nuns moved to a new building in 1847 and during The Hunger the buildings were used by the Poor Law Guardians as an Auxiliary workhouse. The old convent next housed a starch factory followed by the Good Shepherd Nuns whilst they awaited the completion of their new convent.
In 1896 Dean Woods, founder of the Congregation of the Divine Pastor, took over the premises to provide accommodation for the Congregation’s clerical students studying at St John’s College (Seminary). By 1899 St Mary’s College, a preparatory college for boys, with nuns in charge of the domestic arrangements had been set up. In 1906 the College transferred to Blackburn and the Congregation, a body of priests who bound themselves to total abstinence, established St Patrick’s Home for inebriates. The reformatory was certified for 30 male Roman Catholic patients. The only recreation ground attached to the home was a small plot 150 feet by 110 feet. Eighteen months later in his report on the reformatory the Inspector under the Inebriates Acts stated that this recreation ground was insufficient for the nature of the institution and that the community was hampered by lack of funds. These two difficulties were to hamper the reformatory throughout its existence. In June 1908 the reformatory became certified for an additional 10 patients. The Home, which had been set up in philanthropic manner, was for patients from the whole of Ireland and the Government provided a grant of 7s a week per head but an additional 5/6 per week per head was required and Corporations and Councils were reluctant to commit support.
When the 1911 census was taken there were two household returns made for St Mary’s College, one for the reformatory and one for the nuns who were still resident and presumably still taking care of domestic arrangements. 4 nuns occupied 4 rooms to the rear of the building whilst in the reformatory section there was a superintendent and assistant superintendent (both clergymen), 3 theological students, 3 officers (reformatory attendants), 1 messenger/out-porter and 26 patients occupying 26 rooms with 24 windows at the front of the building. There were 10 outbuildings – a boiling house, a stable, a harness room, 3 workshops, a shed, a store and 2 laundries.
Dean Woods died in 1913. There was no provision in his will for the upkeep of St Patrick’s Home and it closed on 13st March 1914 although St Mary’s College remained as a domicile for students at St John’s College.
*The only photograph of the building that I have come across was taken in 1965 just prior to its demolition. The original is in the Presentation Archives, Dungarvan. There is a reproduction in Angela Tobin’s 2018 Doctoral Thesis: Presentation Convent and Primary School, Waterford (1798-2005). I have edited the image to remove the extraneous content and enhance the contrast.