History

The Sisters of St. Louis have been in Ireland since 1859, when the first three Sisters came to Monaghan from the French Motherhouse at Juilly near Paris.  Post-famine Ireland had great need of education, especially for poorer people, and the Sisters’ influence was felt in local schools.  As St. Louis Sisters increased in numbers, they met requests to staff several primary and secondary schools and new foundations were made.  By the end of the nineteenth century St. Louis Convents and schools existed in:

-                     Monaghan Town

-                  Bundoran, Co. Donegal

-                     Ramsgrange, Co. Wexford

-                     Middletown, Co. Armagh

-                     Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan

-                     Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo

-                     Clones, Co. Monaghan

To these were added by the middle of the twentieth century, convents and schools in

-                     Rathmines, Dublin

-                     Balla, Co. Mayo

-                     Kilkeel, Co. Down

-                     Newcastle, Co. Down

-                     Ballymena, Co. Antrim

-                     Clogher, Co. Tyrone

-                     Cushendall, Co. Antrim

-                     Dundalk,Co. Louth

-                     Belfast, Co.Antrim

A number of foundations were established in England, California and West Africa.  The first St. Louis foreign missions were launched in Ghana in 1947 and Nigeria in 1948.  The sisters arrived in California in 1949 and from California a mission was established in Brazil in 1978.

Such far-reaching expansion over only a century led eventually to some unease with the centralized organization which the Sisters had inherited from their origins in France.  A felt need was emerging for new structures of leadership and administration The seventies saw the beginnings of decentralization with establishment of Regions, first in California and West Africa, later in Ireland, England and France.  From this tome onwards we experienced great changes in the Irish Region.

Our numbers have been increased in recent years by the transfer to the Irish Region of many Sisters from other Regions, for health, ministry or other reasons. There are now # Sisters in the Irish Region.

In the past three years a process of restructuring has been launched in the St. Louis Institute as a whole.  What it will mean for the Irish region has not yet unfolded, but we look forward hopefully to this next phase of our St. Louis story.