A public meeting has been held in Drogheda to open a discussion about
best to recognise the contribution to the town of the Mercy Sisters
after the departure next month of the last three Mercy.
Sisters Bosco, Dominic and Immaculata were recently bid farewell at a
Mass celebrated by Fr Denis Nulty, who said he found that
“widespread dismay, annoyance and disappointment had been the
predominant reaction through the parish” to the news that they are to
leave.
The closure of the Drogheda Mercy community, the latest move in
the congregation’s rationalisation programme, brings to an end an era,
which lasted 157 years.
“Needless to say, thousands of lives have greatly benefitted by the
Mercy Sisters' presence amongst us over the last 157 years and we wish
them well in their new pastures,” Fr Nulty remarked.
The Mercy nuns were a cornerstone of education in Drogheda and were
responsible for establishing the Sacred Heart Secondary School and Scoil
Mhuire Fatima.
The order set up a base in Drogheda in 1854 and four
years later, opened the Scoil Mhuire Fatima primary school.
In 1879, the Sisters moved to a proper convent and the Sacred Heart
secondary school.
By the turn of the twentieth century, there were 26
nuns in the convent and a new ten-room school to cater for 300 girls was
completed in 1926.
When it was opened by the then Bishop Kyne of
Meath, he remarked that it was built with 'no government grants'.
The Mercy nuns were also involved in a nearby hospital and at
visitations of the sick and ran a laundry from 1905 to 1947 that they
set up to give employment to girls leaving their school; its customers
included the wartime army camp in nearby Gormanston.
In 1960, the huge numbers of students seeking secondary education led
to the building of the present day Sacred Heart School at Sunnyside.
Former pupils of Mercy Sisters from Drogheda have included Archbishop
Timothy Dolan of New York.
Responding to the tributes, the three nuns who depart next month,
thanked priests and parishioners of St Mary’s parish and said the
farewell Mass and reception was, “a memorable day, though bitter sweet.”
“We will treasure the memories in union and prayer and wherever we
roam our hearts will always remain in our dear home – St. Mary’s
Parish,” they said.
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