Birr Community Online

St. Brendan’s RC Church has launched it’s new website. It contains information about the two churches in the parish of St. Brendan’s - St. Brendan’s in Birr and The Church of the Annunciation in Carrig.

Visit the website here.

It is over five years ago now since we came up to our new home in Riverside. For us, Sisters of Mercy, it was a big decision to move from the old Convent in Wilmer Road and it involved more than just a change of residence. In a sense it signalled the end of the monastic way of life, a way in which we had served and in which many of us had spent long years of Religious Life.

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The following is a transcript of a letter, dated April 8th 1863, from Fr. John Egan PP (Birr) to The Superior General (Christian Brothers) Rev. Aloysius Hoare requesting the Christian Brothers come to Birr.

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Catherine McAuley was born in North Dublin in 1778. Following the death of her father in 1783, life for her became difficult both economically and socially. As a teenager she nursed her mother through a prolonged illness until she died. After that, economic circumstances necessitated moving from one relative to another in order to have a roof over her head. Sometimes this meant being separated from her brother and sister.

In 1803, Mr. and Mrs.William Callaghan, a wealthy childless couple adopted her. She moved with them to live in Coolock in the outskirts of Dublin. While she was living with them she commenced her mission of mercy to the neighbouring poor and sick. In addition she nursed Mrs. Callaghan through a lengthy illness until she died in 1819 and subsequently nursed Mr. Callaghan before his death in 1822. The Callaghan estate was left to Catherine McAuley and she used it to fund her building development in Baggot Street for the care of the poor and socially disadvantaged.

In 1831 she founded the Sisters of Mercy, a Religious Congregation largely involved in the care of the poor, the sick and educationally disadvantaged. In the early days her work was mostly among the people of Dublin, but in time the Congregation spread and became one of the largest Congregations of women, not only in Ireland, but in the world.

Birr was Catherine’s last foundation of the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland. She came to Birr at the end of 1840 at the invitation of the Parish Priest, Fr. John Spain to help heal a schism between Bishop Kennedy and Fr. Michael Crotty. The first Sisters of Mercy travelled from Baggot street by canal to Tullamore and by coach to Eglish where they were entertained by the Parish Priest and later escorted to Birr. They took up residence near the Camcor River in what Catherine McAuley herself described as “a good old house, delightfully situated with fields and gardens all round it”. This house now forms part of Mercy Primary School. The Convent, beautifully restored recently by Offaly County Council, was completed in 1853 and the Chapel in 1879. Five Sisters moved to McAuley Drive in 1992 and the remaining moved to Riverside in 1996.