The Irish connection, the arrival of Presentation nuns in Madras

The Irish were in these parts of India since the arrival of the men from Europe - traders, East India Companymen and soldiers. They married locally and left behind children and orphans. As did men from other parts of the world.

The Catholic Church had spread in San Thome after the arrival of the Portuguese in early 16th century. In Black Town (George Town), other Catholic missionaries were at work.

The community came to be managed by two heads - the Padradro, a legacy of the Portuguese with its base in San Thome and the Propaganda Fide with Papal directions, with its base in George Town and St. Mary's Church, now a co-Cathedral.

Fide decided to send Irish missionaries to Madras since they would be generally accepted here to take care of the spiritual needs of the Eurasians and the Catholic foreigners. Fide also saw it important to appoint an Irish Bishop.

When Rev. Patrick Carew was appointed in 1832, he saw the need for the religious to take care of children, the poor and the orphans. 

And during one of his trips to Ireland in 1841 he sought volunteers from the Presentation Convents there. Rev. Mother Francis Xavier Curran from the Rathan convent herself volunteered as did a few other nuns.

The Presentation Union congregation was started by Sr. Nano Nagle in 1771, seen in the photo. ( Nagle started schools for the poor in British-occupied Ireland where Catholic schools were not allowed and the first convent was started in 1777).

In September 1841,  Rev. John Fennelly, newly appointed bishop for Madras and a small group of nuns led by Rev. Mother Curran boarded a East Indiaman ship called Lady Flora to south India, to Madras. 

It took them over four months of an arduous journey. On January 13. 1842 the missionaries sighted the sea off Madras.

At outer sea, the nuns had to climb down ladders to get into small masula boats and then be carried by local men across the surf to the sandy space where First Line Beach Road now runs. ( Above: File image of the seaside in the 19th cent.)

They are said to have made it to St. Mary's church on Armenian Street, opposite Madras High Court (north side). 

The Presentation Union nuns had finally arrived.  They were to go on to found many schools in Madras and spread their work in the state and throughout India.

A Village called Elambore

My little world, when we grew up in Madras in the 60s was Narasinghapuram.
This used to a be a quiet neighbourhood behind the huge buildings of The Hindu and The Mail newspapers and of P.Orr & Sons, well known for holographic instruments, jewellery and watches.

In the 60s, a small radio market had taken root here and this was the place to shop for radios and transistors, valves and audio systems.

Inside the puram sat St. Anthony's Church and beside it was what seemed to be a hostel for orphans and the poor.

Much of our life revolved around the religious and social acts at this small church which was still an outpost of the main, and much older church in Chintadripet.

Most families who wanted their children to study in an English medium school would send them to the Christ Church Anglo Indian School, on Mount Road, a neighbour of Cosmopolitan Club.
It was a co-ed school.

I suppose parents like mine who insisted a Catholic school had to look afar. And the St. Anthonys School run by the Presentation union nuns was the obvious choice. And that is how Egmore became a familiar neighbourhood.

Elambore as the place was called was one of the oldest villages that went on to create the city of Madras.
The Elambore river and the village dominated the map of the region in the old days.

Here is an extract from records of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) -----

Madras in 17002 1.12 The Cooum River and the Elambore River or North River which flows into the Cooum at its mouth were running very close to each other (near the Central Jail area) and during floods they inundated the whole area. 

The two rivers were linked by a cut, at this point, to equalise the floods in the rivers. A bridge was constructed in 1710 across the cut between the two rivers. The Principal road to Egmore from that time up to 1931 had been the road in front of the present Central Jail. In this era there was a lot of building activity (a redoubt at Egmore, a bridge and churches at the Fort and many private buildings in and around the Fort).

Due to congestion inside the Fort, the British constructed some garden houses in what is known as Peddanaickenpet. In 1733 there was a lot of congestion in George Town and the weaving Community started settling in Chintadripet area and Collepetta near Tiruvottiyur since abundant open space was available for weaving. 


The washer men who were in the Mint area then moved towards the west. The Potters from this area moved outside the Fort on the north side and formed a new colony (Kosapet). Because of the construction of a bridge in 1710 to connect Egmore, people moved towards the present Moore Market area and settled. 

May & Baker, Mount Road

This is going to be my epic story of the school where I studied, of the people I knew, met and observed. The places that made the school what it was and is.

I am starting this a couple of months after St. Anthony's Anglo Indian High School drew the curtains on its centenary as a school in Egmore. Perhaps, somewhere down the line there will be a book in the making.

My earliest memory of Madras was a black and white picture of my Dad, Cyril John D Souza, in his formal attire, wearing a tie standing in the corridor of the May & Baker, that famed English pharmaceutical company whose Madras office he worked for. He was some sort of Store In Charge and M & B had its offices just off Mount Road, in the building where Stereovision stands today, next to the famed India Silk House.

Since we lived on what is still a vantage location on Madras' greatest road of that time, Mount Road that ran from the Fort on to the Mount ( St Thomas Mount), I got a bird's view of all that went around in this busy neighbourhood.

Most children of our area, the area of Narasinghapuram went to Christ Church school, also on Mount Road but my mom must have been keen to send us to a convent school and that is how she came to choose St. Anthony's in Egmore.

And from the time I joined Std.I in 1965, I began to appreciate and understand new areas of this city - Pudupet and Egmore.

My memories of the Std.I journies from home to school are lost in time and not even faint now. We had to cross the Coovum River and the long winding road would bring you to the gates of St. Anthony's. So, it was not a school that stood too far away from home.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to write on the early villages of this area that went on to make this city. That includes Elambore, as Egmore was then called; the arrival of the Presentation Union nuns in Black Towne ( north Madras) and a short history of their early work here. And on the Anglo Indian community in this part of Madras and then lead onto the foundation of St. Anthony's.

I want this story to be of the people. So if you have stories of Egmore of the 1940s or 50s, if you studied at St. Anthonys in that era or in the 60s and want to share anecdotes here or if you have photos of people or places that enrich this story, feel free to share them here.