Born: 9 December 1921, Ireland
Died: 19 January 2017
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: NA
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Turlough O’Riordan. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Clery, Noelle May Curtis (1921–2017), educational pioneer and entrepreneur, was born on 9 December 1921 at 16 Booterstown Avenue, Co. Dublin, the home of her parents Dora Frances (née Reilly) and Claude Victor Clery. Claude was described as a ‘landed proprietor’ on Noelle’s birth record, and of ‘independent means’ on the birth record of her brother Reginald Valentine (‘Val’) Clery (1924–96). Noelle was educated at Mercer’s School, Castleknock, Co. Dublin, and later at Alexandra College, Dublin. The child of a religiously mixed marriage, Clery later recalled the devastating impact of visits from the local Catholic parish priest and members of the right-wing Catholic Action group, forcefully urging her father to raise his children as Catholics.
By 1947 Clery was involved in experimental theatre, designing costumes for the Dublin Marionette Group. She performed in their March 1949 production of ‘Treasure Island’ at the Peacock Theatre, Dublin, and remained active with the group into the 1950s; later, Clery was among the founding directors of the Irish Institute of Drama and the Allied Arts established in February 1978, which provided drama courses to members of amateur dramatic societies. From July 1948 until summer 1957 Clery was one of three principals of the Baggot Secretarial College at 31 Baggot Street, Dublin, which offered young women secretarial courses through daytime and evening classes. In January 1960 Clery married George Alexander Reid at the Church of Ireland Christ Church, Bray, Co. Wicklow. They had a daughter, Vanessa, and later legally separated, c. 1962.
In March 1962 Clery established Student Overseas Services (SOS), an au pair, secretarial and home placement agency operating from 63 Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin. In 1963 Clery ran a summer school for around seventy students, mostly teenagers, in Castlepark School, Sandycove, with Monk Gibbon among the lecturers. Clery focused on matching European au pairs and visiting language students with Irish families, who received a small stipend. Ireland’s predominantly Catholic ethos, relative public safety and cultural conservatism made it an attractive destination for Spanish, German, Italian and French au pairs and students seeking to learn English. In 1965 Clery began arranging for young Irish students, seeking to improve their language skills, to stay with families in Western European countries.
These innovative activities coalesced in early 1966 when Clery established the Language Centre of Ireland Ltd (LCI) at 5 Wilton Place, Dublin, one of the first language schools in Ireland. Vice-principal Mary Towers managed the organisation and the assignment of local accommodation to visiting students. An adept publicist, Clery promoted the LCI’s activities and programmes in the media. In June 1967 Clery and Towers appointed Noel O’Cleirigh as director of studies, who brought specialised language and linguistics teaching experience. The LCI initially delivered English courses to overseas students, primarily of secondary school and university age, later adding secretarial courses for Irish students. Clery continued to operate the SOS bureau within the LCI while melding the provision of au pairs in Dublin homes, and the housing of visiting language students, into the LCI’s operations. A 1967 overview of Dublin’s growing au pair agency and language-school sector noted that Clery’s LCI was probably the largest and most successful au pair agency in Ireland.
In August 1966 Clery began organising summer courses and schools covering various facets of Irish history, culture and literature. Lectures were often delivered by distinguished scholars, writers and educators, including Augustine Martin, John de Courcy Ireland, F. S. L. Lyons, Terence de Vere White, Art Cosgrove, Derek Mahon and John Garvin. From around August 1967 the LCI was advertised as recognised by the Department of Education (though there was no relevant statutory regulation or any registration requirement). Likely spurred by O’Cleirigh, in 1969 the LCI became an accredited centre for the prestigious (and well remunerated) University of Cambridge English language examinations, and the Institute of Linguistics examinations. That year the LCI catered to over 1,000 summer students from twenty-five countries, with another 300 attending winter courses. Also in the summer of 1969, Clery established the Institute of Irish Studies (IIS), which ran summer schools on Irish history and culture, aimed at Irish adults and students, from the LCI’s Wilton Place premises; the premises were expanded in 1970.
Clery’s ventures, although open to all, primarily served the needs of women, who by 1972 – for the first time in Irish history – constituted a majority of Irish school-leavers. As teenage student numbers declined from the early 1970s, the LCI adapted to focus on adults. Ireland’s accession to the EEC in 1973 (which Clery welcomed) spurred the LCI to offer courses for translators and interpreters, and secretarial and business courses aimed at commercial administrative staff and managers. Having made a submission to a major 1973 government report addressing adult education, from 1976 the IIS advertised new approaches to adult education, including workshops, and offered a range of professional, humanities and language courses. IIS residential summer courses, held in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) from the late 1970s, were popular with students from American universities.
In 1979 the LCI introduced courses on teaching English as a foreign language, aimed at Irish graduates intending to work overseas as language instructors and teachers. However, the premises at Wilton Place were sold in March 1980, around the same time that Clery sold LCI to Mary Towers. Incorporated into the Language, Secretarial and Business Centre, it was later known as LSB College. From the early 1980s Clery operated the IIS from her home at 6 Holyrood Park, Sandymount, Dublin. She established the Irish Diaspora Project at the IIS in 1992, which was also the topic of an IIS international summer school held in TCD in 1993. The summer school appears to have ceased operations by the start of 1995, and there is no record of Clery’s involvement in adult education afterwards.
Clery’s educational and social activism was motivated by experiences within her own family. Prompted by her daughter’s reading difficulties, in 1972 Clery was a key figure in the establishment of the Dyslexia Association of Ireland. A prominent advocate and fundraiser on its behalf, Clery hosted meetings and events at the LCI’s Wilton Place premises and served as the association’s vice-present from 1974. As a supporter of the Council for the Status of Women (later the National Women’s Council of Ireland), in her public pronouncements she spoke of the difficulties experienced by women who were legally separated from their husbands, highlighting the lack of state recognition and supports, particularly for separated mothers. In March 1977 she asserted ‘there are strong similarities between being a woman and being a Protestant in Ireland’ (Irish Times, 2 Mar. 1977).
Having lived her later years in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Noelle Clery died on 19 January 2017 at St Columcille’s Hospital, Loughlinstown, Co. Dublin. After her funeral at Kill o’ the Grange Church of Ireland church in Deansgrange, Co. Dublin, she was cremated at Mount Jerome, Harold’s Cross, Dublin.