Subarquivo 28 - Cashel Convent Papers

On the 9th of November 1830, three Sisters from Presentation Convent Thurles arrived in Cashel to make a foundation there. They came at the request of the Parish Priest of Cashel, Dean John Ryan in order to educate the girls of poorer families for whom there were no schools. The three Sisters sent to Cashel were Sisters Frances Cormack, Ignatius Scully and Peter McCann and they took up residence in a building that had been erected by Dean Ryan. The residence formed what would be the centre block of the later convent and was used as a convent, chapel and school. Within two days of the Sisters arrival Dean Ryan died and there was little preparation made for their coming which left the Sisters to rely on the local people for support.
The Sisters opened their school on the 31st of January 1831 with over 200 pupils despite the building being inadequate for the purpose. By the 1850’s the community was struggling and reduced in resources having lost Sisters to the famine. The Parish Priest, Dean Cantwell, appealed to Archbishop Leahy for support. He in turn asked the Presentation Sisters in Thurles to help the Cashel Foundation and in 1859 Sr. Joseph Ryan, who was appointed Superioress, and Sr. Xavier Carroll came to help the community. They began to appeal for funds by organising a bazaar and the townspeople responded generously. This allowed the Sisters to raise sufficient funds to build a new primary school on Friar Street which opened in 1861. This was followed by a new chapel in 1864 and living conditions improved hugely for the Sisters. In 1869 St. Francis Industrial School opened in a newly added wing of the convent providing accommodation for 100 homeless girls.
After the effects of a typhoid epidemic in 1872 were overcome, the community entered a new period of growth and expansion. In 1875 the old houses in Friar Street were demolished and St. Francis School was rebuilt as a three story building and certified for 110 children. In 1905 a laundry was built in Gorman’s Yard, formerly the yard of the Secondary school, and served the town and hinterland while also providing employment to local women in Cashel. The laundry closed its doors in 1965. A Technical and Intermediate School was opened in 1905.
The need for a new infant’s school and secondary school led to the Sisters organising another bazaar to raise funds for new facilities. They hoped to provide the new schools in time to mark the centenary of the foundation in 1930. £3,000 was raised and a new infant’s school and secondary school were completed. In 1965 St. Francis Industrial School was closed and replaced by a boarding school for girls which remained open until 1982.
On the 4th of August 1965 five Sisters, Annunciata Keogh, Evangelist Ryan, Lelia O’Sullivan, Assumpta Buckley and Peter Casey, left Cashel at the request of Most Reverend Dr. Thomas Morris to establish a foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States. The Sisters taught classes to boys and girls at St. Vincent De Paul Catholic School. The Sisters left Salt Lake City in 1994.
In 1984 the primary school was transferred to a new modern complex on the Old Road, Cashel, which accommodated four separate primary schools including Presentation Convent, Christian Brothers Primary, Junior Boys and Church of Ireland Primary.
In 2001 after 171 years of service in the community Cashel convent closed its doors and the remaining Sisters left for their new homes. The former Presentation primary school on Friar Street, Cashel, was re-opened in July 2001 as a new Parish centre while the former Presentation Convent is now in use as St. Teresa’s Nursing Home.