How a Mayo location inspired a new innovation centre in Australia

The remarkable story of the founding of Foxford Woollen Mills has served as the inspiration for a new innovation centre at one of the leading all-girls second-level schools in Australia.

St Columba’s College in Melbourne was established by the Sisters of Charity in 1897, just five years after the same religious order founded a woollen mills on the banks of the River Moy in Foxford. Teachers and students at St Columba’s became aware of the Foxford story after a group of Australians visited the Mayo town in recent years. The group consisted of representatives of the Mary Aikenhead Ministries, which seeks to continue the vision and ethos of the Sisters of Charity in schools, healthcare facilities and other institutions founded in Australia by the religious order during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Last Saturday, the group returned to Foxford where they spoke proudly of the new innovation centre at St Columba’s College, which will inspire future generations of young women in Melbourne in the years ahead.

“The woollen mills, and the town of Foxford, stand as a legacy to the tradition of the enterprising spirit of the Sisters of Charity,” school deputy principal Brigitte McDonald told the Western People. “In our St Columba’s College Foxford Innovation Centre, we aspire to instill in our students a sense of purpose, determination and courage, using their gifts and talents to grow their own knowledge and skills and then setting forth into the world armed with the tools to make a positive difference for themselves and for others.” 

Ms McDonald said the story of the founding of Foxford Woollen Mills by Irish Sister of Charity Mother Agnes Morrough-Bernard, at a time of acute poverty in the West of Ireland in the late 19th century, was foremost in the minds of the school leadership team when they sat down to select a name for their new innovation centre.

“It is Mother Agnes’s spirit of innovation and tenacity that inspired the name of our new building. A place where our students will follow in her footsteps, to design, create, collaborate and innovate.” 

The Foxford Innovation Centre, which opened earlier this year, includes Junior and Senior Food Technology Kitchens; Food Technology Flexible Learning; Maker Spaces; Textiles and Ceramics Studios; Digital Design and Photography; General Arts Classrooms; General Science Labs; Chemistry, Biology and Physics Labs; Science Prep Room; Canteen Kitchen and Food Store; Competition Grade Sports Court.

The group that visited Foxford last Saturday consisted of teachers, doctors, nurses and pastoral workers from the east coast of Australia who are committed to continuing the legacy of the Sisters of Charity and its Dublin-born founder Mary Aikenhead. They spent over a week in Ireland, visiting various sites that are part of the Sisters of Charity story, and they experienced the very best of the fine weather in Foxford last Saturday. Local men Frankie Devaney and Larry Murray were on hand to provide them with a tour of the town – as they have been doing with the previous visiting groups from Australia – and they also enjoyed a tour of the woollen mills followed by lunch in the newly-expanded mills’ restaurant.

Sr Loretta Bani, who was visiting Foxford for the first time, was deeply impressed by the legacy of the Irish Sisters of Charity in the town, not just at the woollen mills but in the areas of education and culture. The Sisters founded the local secondary school, as well as a music school, and were instrumental in improving living standards for local residents through the construction of new houses for mill workers and the promotion of modern farming methods in the late 19th century.

Before they departed, the group were presented with two rare copies of the book, Foxford: Through the Arches of Time, which tells the story of the founding of the woollen mills. One of the copies will be kept in the library at St Columba’s College while the other will be retained by Mary Aikenhead Ministries.

Frankie Devaney, who worked in the woollen mills and later managed its visitors’ centre, said it was wonderful to meet the group again and to maintain these important links with the Australian-based Mary Aikenhead Ministries.

“They come to Ireland each year as part of their commitment to continuing the vision and work of the Sisters of Charity and Foxford is always part of their itinerary. It is wonderful to think that our town has inspired the naming of an innovation centre thousands of miles away and I am sure there are few Irish people in Melbourne who will do a double take when they drive past the Foxford Innovation Centre!”

Frankie, who has family in Australia, is hoping to visit the centre in the near future.