Birr, Co Offaly was Catherine McAuley’s first foundation in the Killaloe Diocese and her last in Ireland. On 27th December 1840 Srs. Catherine McAuley, Aloysius Scott, Teresa White, Rose Lynch and a Postulant, Anne Marie McEvoy arrived in Birr. They came at the invitation of Fr. John Spain, Parish priest of Birr, who had been persuaded to invite them by Fr. Matthew OFM Cap, the apostle of Temperance. They travelled to Tullamore by canal and spent the night there. Next day they journeyed by coach to Birr, breaking their journey in Eglish, where they were met by Father Spain. On New Year’s Day they attended Mass in the local church. There they renewed their vows and were presented to the Congregation by Fr. Spain in the following words:

“My dear people, I have a present to make to you … I present to you the Sisters of Mercy, who by their example and pious instruction will draw upon our town the blessing of heaven.”

Fr. Spain had invited them in the hope that they would help heal a schism which had occurred in the parish between a Mr. Crotty, a truant priest, and the parish clergy. This they soon succeeded in doing. As in all the following foundations a school for girls was established and poor families in the neighbourhood were visited and helped.

From Birr to:

1854 Nenagh Co Tipperary
1855 Kilrush, Co Clare
1881 Workhouse Hospital, Birr, Co Offaly
1882 Workhouse Hospital, Nenagh, Co Tipperary
1883 Tulla, Co Clare
1888 Borrisokane, Co Tipperary
1958 Biloxi, Mississippi, US
1963 Gulfport, Mississippi, US

Baggot Street  |  Carlow  |  Limerick  |  Birr  |  Templemore

Doon  |  Abbeyfeale  |  Rathangan  |  New Inn