The drumlins of Monaghan rising above Lake Muckno, Castleblayney
Sample of Carrickmacross Lace
The Patrick Kavanagh Centre, Inniskeen
Canon John Hoey, Parish Priest of Castleblayney ( Muckno Parish) who died in 1895, left money in his will for a Convent in the town. It was Canon James Meegan, his successor, who invited the Sisters of Mercy from Enniskillen, and welcomed the five women who arrived by train on Monday 25th September, 1905.
They took up residence in Laurel Hill House purchased from Dr. Gilmore.
They opened a school the following day in stables in the yard where they taught Needlework, Music and Christian Doctrine.
The foundation stone of the Convent was laid on 31st August, 1910 and the Sisters moved into their new home on 15th August, 1912.
The building of the new Primary Schools went on at the same time and the first pupils moved in after Easter 1913. Infant and Girls’ Primary Schools with extensions added from the 1960s.
New Junior School opened in 1981
Community Pre-School, started in a Convent building and initiated by a Sister
The final wing of the Convent, a public chapel, was added and it opened in 1950. The convent closed on 25th September, 2013.
Two Sisters took up residence in Laurel Hill House, now a bungalow, built in the 1960’s as a caretaker’s house, on the site of the original convent.
From 1915 one large room in the Convent and one in the school were set aside for girls studying for the King’s Scholarship and Intermediate Examinations, the seeds of secondary education.
In 1923 the Sisters built a two-roomed Intermediate School with a stage for drama. Growth ensued….
From this in the 1920s..
To this in the 2000s. Our Lady’s Co-Ed Secondary School
Hospitals
The Sisters were in charge of the Workhouse in Monaghan from 1909 – 1926 and of the County Hospital from the time it opened in Monaghan in 1937 until 2005. One Sister continues to live and work in Monaghan town.
In Castleblayney from 1926 to 1989 Sisters were in charge of the amalgamated workhouses of the county under the new name of County Home, later renamed St. Mary’s Hospital. A Sister continued to minister there until 2000.
St. Mary’s Hospital today
