Editing Lafcadio Hearn (section)

====Catholic education and more abandonment====
[[File:Ye Giglampz.jpg|thumb|The first issue of ''Ye Giglampz'', a satirical weekly published in 1874 by Hearn and Henry Farny]]
In 1861, his great aunt, aware that Hearn was turning away from Catholicism and at the urging of Henry Hearn Molyneux, a relative of her late husband, he was sent to a Catholic college in France, but was disgusted with the life and gave up the Roman Catholic faith. He became fluent in French and would later translate into English the works of [[Guy de Maupassant]] and [[Gustave Flaubert]].

In 1863, again at the suggestion of Molyneux, Hearn was enrolled at [[St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw]], a Catholic [[seminary]] in [[County Durham]], England. In this environment, Hearn adopted the nickname "Paddy" to try to fit in better, and was the top student in English composition for three years.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=26 |url-access=registration}}</ref> At age 16, while at Ushaw, Hearn injured his left eye. The eye became infected and, despite consultations with specialists in Dublin and London, and a year spent out of school convalescing, the eye went blind. Hearn also suffered from severe [[myopia]], so his injury left him permanently with poor vision, requiring him to carry a magnifying glass for close work and a pocket telescope to see anything beyond a short distance. Hearn avoided eyeglasses, believing they would weaken his vision further. The iris was permanently discoloured, and left Hearn self-conscious about his appearance for the rest of his life, causing him to cover his left eye while conversing and always posing for the camera in profile so that the left eye was not visible.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bisland |first=Elizabeth |title=The life and letters of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin |year=1906 |isbn=9781115291613 |volume=1 |location=Boston |pages=35}}</ref>

In 1867, Henry Molyneux, who had become Sarah Brenane's financial manager, went bankrupt, along with Brenane. As there was no money for tuition, Hearn was sent to London's East End to live with Brenane's former maid. She and her husband had little time or money for Hearn, who wandered the streets, spent time in workhouses, and generally lived an aimless, rootless existence. His main intellectual activities consisted of visits to libraries and the [[British Museum]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=29–30 |url-access=registration}}</ref>