Catherine McAuley along with five companions – Mary Clare Moore, Josephine Ward, Vincent Deasy, Teresa White and Anastasia McGawley – arrived in Cork City on the steamer “Hercules” on 6th July, 1837. They were escorted to Rutland Street by a Fr. O’Connor, where they were to live and work for the next fifteen years. Once a fashionable quarter, Rutland Street in 1837, had little of its former elegance. The house itself was a gloomy, sombre building, very much in keeping with convents of the time. However, the Sisters began immediately to visit the poor of the parish and soon they became known as the “sick poor order”. They also began a Pension School in a large room in the house in 1838.
As the number of women joining the order increased, it became necessary to build a bigger convent. On 2nd December, 1850, Bishop William Delaney laid the foundation stone of the new convent in Fitton Street, now Sharman Crawford Street. Named “St. Maries of the Isle” the building is located close to the site of an ancient Dominican Priory. A generous contribution was made by a Ms. Barbara Gould towards the building and the plans included a House of Mercy, a National School and an Orphanage. Gothic in style, the new convent was described as “one of the most beautiful ornaments of the ancient city of Cork”.
The Sisters moved to their new home on 2nd October, 1852. The Pension School was named St. Aloysius School, and this in turn became the first secondary school for girls in the city. The earliest extant register for this school is dated 1887. In 1853 an Infant School and an Industrial School were opened. Later with the acquisition of more land, adjacent to the convent, St. Joseph’s National School was built.
Over time branch houses were opened and today Sisters are engaged in a different ministries in the city.
Southern Province 