Continued
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS
St. Joseph’s Industrial School 1874-1977
The Countess of Kenmare rented the vacated convent in High Street, refurbished it as an Industrial school to train girls for service. She took in 25 girls and a matron until she got the Sisters involved. The house was dedicated to St. Joseph. The project was funded for a number of years by the Countess before the Industrial School Act was extended to Ireland in 1868. In 1869 the school was certified under the Industrial School Act to provide accommodation for 78 girls. Sr. M. B. Irwin was the first Resident Manager. Generally there were six other Sisters involved in the school. Soon extra accommodation was needed and the Sisters. prayed to St. Joseph for assistance. A generous benefactor came to their aid and a new building was erected beside the convent 1873/74. The girls were transferred there in 1874. It was in operation until 1977. In the 1970s when Group Homes were established the Industrial Schools were closed.
St. Joseph’s Industrial School was demolished in the late 1980s due to dry rot in the building.
The Boys’ Orphanage was sold, and the Garda Barracks now stands on the site.
Boys’ Orphanage. 1872-1967 : Another school was built in the convent grounds as an Infant School for young boys. In 1872 it was certified for 25 residents. Over the years many improvements were made to the building. On 1st April 1967 the Boys’ Orphanage was officially closed as the number of boys decreased. The young boys were then accommodated in St. Joseph’s Industrial School until it closed in 1977. Eventually, the building was sold and is now the Garda Station in Killarney.
Group Homes : In accordance with the wishes of the Department of Education and to provide a more normal living situation for the children, Group Homes were established.
Liosamoine Group Home opened in November 1971, eight girls and five boys moved there from St. Joseph’s Industrial School. Liosamoine was sold in 1993.
Airne Villa Group Home was built on convent grounds 1975/1976. The remainder of the children from St. Joseph’s Orphanage went to live there. In 1999/2000 Airne Villa was developed as an Assessment and Resource Unit.
Saratoga Group Home opened in 1986 but closed in 1987.
Casa Maria Group Home the children were brought here mid- school year (probably when Saratoga closed). It opened in the 1980s. This group home did not last long.
Deenagh Group Home opened in 1993.
Tralee and Killarney Child Care services united to form Mercy Child Care Services Kerry. The Sisters of Mercy ended their involvement in Childcare in 2001 handing it over to the Health Board.
SCHOOLS
Holy Cross National School : In 1888 the stone built Holy Cross Convent School on Rock Road was ready for occupation. The girls from St. David’s and “Flaggy Hall” and the small boys were now accommodated in the newly built National School, where the education of girls up to eighteen years and junior boys to second standard continued. In 1938 a ‘Secondary Top’ was started where students were now prepared for the State examinations. This building was later given to the parish and now houses John Paul11 Pastoral Centre.
St. Teresa’s Secondary School : In September 1952 St Teresa’s Secondary School was opened in the building that had previously been uses for lace making. On the 10th. October 1959 an extension to the secondary school was officially opened to cater for a growing number of pupils. Secondary education continued in St. Teresa’s until the re-organisation of education in Killarney by the Department of Education in 1974.
Under the new arrangement the Mercy Sisters catered for primary education and Presentation Sisters for secondary education. This building was demolished.
Holy Cross Primary School 1977 : A new Primary School was built by the Department of Education on a site donated by the Sisters of Mercy. The new Holy Cross Primary School, first occupied on 1st. July 1977, run by the Sisters of Mercy, catered for the amalgamated Presentation and Mercy Primary pupils. This school is now a thriving, progressive school.
Laundry: In a building adjoining Holy Cross Convent, a laundry, which gave employment to local girls was opened from the beginning. In 1939 an electric plant and extra machinery was installed. In 1967 the laundry was extended and greatly modernised. The laundry closed in 1989.
The Lace Industry : In 1868 to provide employment for girls from the town and surrounding districts. The community started the Irish Point Lace Industry. The first class of apprentice lace-makers numbered twenty.
FOUNDATIONS
In 1854 the first foundation from Killarney was made to Tralee.
In 1864 a foundation was made to Castletownbere.
In 1871 a foundation was made to Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick.
In 1877 Tralee, Castletownbere and Abbeyfeale Convents became autonomous.
Holiday Home : In September 1945 a seaside house was purchased in Ballyheigue. It was the residence of the late Dr. Griffin, after a fire in 1974 it was rebuilt and extended, It served as a holiday house and conference centre for the Sisters of the Kerry Mercy Union until 2006 when it was sold. The house was demolished and houses built on the site.
NURSING
Dispensary : The Sisters established the first free dispensary in a house near the present entrance to Holy Cross Convent and it continued until the Dispensary Houses Act in 1879.
Maternity Hospital 1848-1870 : Lady Kenmare provided a Lying in Hospital at St. Anne’s Road Killarney in the year 1848 to be controlled by the Sisters. This continued up to the year 1870 when provision was made for Maternity in the Union Hospital.
WORKHOUSES
Killarney 1867-1922 : On 28 September 1867 at the request of the Poor Law Guardians, six members of the Holy Cross Community were allocated to St. Elizabeth’s Convent, attached to the Workhouse Hospital, Killarney. Thus started the nursing apostolate of Holy Cross.
The Sisters took up their official duties on the 31October, 1867. They continued to work there until 6 January 1922 when the Workhouses were abolished.
Cahersiveen 1879-1922 : In 1879 there was a call for the Killarney Sisters to extend their activities to Cahersiveen where typhus and small pox ravaged the people. Three Sisters went there and achieved miraculous results. They remained there until January, 1922 when the workhouses were abolished.
Kenmare 1880-1922 : In 1880 the Killarney Sisters went to Kenmare and again continued their very excellent work until the abolition of the workhouses in 1922.
County Home 1922 : One County Home in Killarney took the place of the former Workhouses throughout Co. Kerry. The Sisters commenced the new mission in January 1922. The Sisters have continued to work in the County Home since 1922 it was later called St. Columbanus’ Geriatric home. The last Sister of Mercy, Matron retired in 1996 and the last Sister staff nurse in 2009.
Fever Hospital 1853-1940 : Lady Kenmare likewise caused a fever hospital to be built in 1853 at Saint Anne’s Road. Two Sisters died in 1872 of fever caught while nursing there, Sr. M. Augustine Burke died 28 August 1872 and Sr. Alphonsus Cotter died 13 December 1872. When it closed the old building was reconstructed as St. Mary’s Parish Hall. where Sisters also did voluntary work for many years.
District Hospital 1939: In 1939 the present District Hospital was completed and a Sister was appointed head nurse and two other Sisters were appointed staff nurses. In 1951 and 1953 two other Sisters were appointed, both had Midwifery training as well as General. In 1971 the County Council was replaced by a regional board, The Southern Health Board. The last Sister Matron was appointed in 1974. She retired in 1993.
The hospital is now called Killarney Community Hospital an Intermediate Care Unit, geared toward patients referred from acute hospitals, general practitioners and community nursing teams, who need, for example short- term convalescent care following an operation. The hospital also has excellent palliative care and respite care services. Older people, who for example may have suffered a fall at home and need short-term care, are accommodated.
The Isolation Hospital 1940: St Anne’s Isolation Hospital opened in 1940. A Sister Sister of Mercy was appointed head nurse and two other Sisters were appointed staff nurses, a tradition which continued under the Southern Health Board Management until the mid 1980s. In 1986 preparations were made for the closure of the hospital as its use was deemed unnecessary as most modern hospitals had facilities for dealing with infection.
In 2017 St. Anne’s Isolation Hospital found a new use as a unit for long-stay patients from the Mental Hospital & a unit for intellectually disabled residents were built on the site. The 40-bed Deer Lodge, an €8m residential unit in the former St Anne’s isolation hospital in Killarney, was completed in 2016 . Its availability ensures the transfer of over 30 long-stay patients from the O’Connor unit in the grounds of nearby St Finan’s. It also allows intellectual disability residents at a unit in Ballydribbeen to be transferred to their own residential living in the community
Social Services: In July 1972, Bishop Eamon Casey initiated the formal setting up of the Social Services for the Parish of Killarney. The Sisters of Mercy had already appointed a Parish Social Worker to care for the elderly and she now worked in liaison with the Community Services’ Council in providing organised services for all needy in the parish. In 1978 it became necessary to appoint a second Sister to the Social Services. The following areas of need were dealt with: visitation of the elderly; visitation of long stay patients in St. Finian’s and St. Colmbanus’ Home; family visitation; pre-school playgroup and Community Information Centre. The Sisters were supported in their efforts by a large number of individual voluntary workers.
Diocesan Amalgamation: On the 2nd October 1971, the Sisters voted for Diocesan Amalgamation with Tralee and Castletownbere Convents in order to comply with the Decree for Religious of Vatican 11. The Union of the Sisters of Mercy of the Diocese of Kerry was promulgated by a decree from Rome on 28th. April 1973.
In 1994 the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland, South Africa, Kenya and the United States united to form a new Mercy Congregation. Ireland was divided into provinces. Killarney convent became part of the Southern Province.
Refurbished : Holy Cross convent was refurbished in 2017. Back
Southern Province 