The Sisters of Mercy of the Northern Branch of Ireland live in the six counties of Northern Ireland (Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Derry) and eight counties in the Republic of Ireland (Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, Louth, Offaly, Meath and Westmeath). View Places
Branch Leader
Sr. Perpetua McNulty
Team Members
Sr. Cecilia Cadogan
Sr. Áine Campbell
Sr. Anne Murphy
Sr. Kathleen Savage
Safeguarding Children
Click Here to download the Northern Branch Safeguarding Children Policy.
To download the Congregational Safeguarding Children Policy, visit the Homepage of the Congregational Website
Our History
The first Convent of Mercy was founded by Catherine McAuley in Baggot Street, Dublin, in 1831.
Baggot St, Dublin
The first Convent of Mercy outside Dublin was founded in 1836 in Tullamore, Co Offaly (in today’s Northern Branch) by Sr. Mary Ann Doyle, Catherine McAuley’s companion, and a novice, Sr. Teresa Purcell.
Convent of Mercy, Tullamore. Founded in 1836
Other early Mercy Convents founded from Dublin were also in the Northern Branch: Dundalk (1847) and Belfast (1854). Tullamore, in its turn, founded two convents in the Northern Branch area: Kells (1844) and Derry (1848).
Convent of Mercy, Dundalk
Founded from Dublin in 1847
St. Paul’s Convent, Crumlin Road, Belfast Founded from Dublin in 1854
Convent of Mercy, Kells
Founded from Tullamore in 1844
View of Pump Street Convent, Derry
Founded from Tullamore in 1848
In the beginning, the Foundress, Catherine McAuley, envisaged each new Mercy convent being autonomous, making decisions locally so that they could respond more appropriately to the needs of a particular area. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, however, the Sisters began to form Diocescan Units as they realised that they could carry out the works of Mercy more effectively by collaborating in larger groups.
With the passage of time ideas evolve and develop and, so, in 1994, the present structure of the Congregation, consisting of Seven Branches, including the Northern Branch, was set up.
In 1969, four Sisters from Dungarvan, in the Southern Branch, went to Yola in Nigeria, three Sisters from Strabane went to Minna and five Sisters from Armagh Diocese went to Lagos.
Eventually, the three groups decided to join together as one unit and in 1994 they voted to join the Northern Branch of Ireland.
In September 1971, three Sisters from the Navan community went to Monze, Zambia, and worked with other religious congregations until 1979. When the Sisters in the Diocese of Meath formed a diocesan union in 1975, they decided to develop the Mission in Zambia by sending four more Sisters there and the Zambian Mercy Mission began in 1979.
The last three Sisters left their Mercy Ministry in Mazabuka and Kaleya in December 2019 having handed over their projects to the diocese of Monze and the Department of Education.
