Search Results for 'St Vincents Academy'

One hundred and eighty years ago, the Sisters of Mercy came to Galway for the first time, to a house in Lombard Street, to devote themselves to works of mercy among the poor. The great Catherine McAuley was one of the first three nuns to come here, the others being Mother M Teresa White and Mother N Catherine Leahy.

The Sisters of Mercy came to Galway on May 1 1840. They started, in extremely difficult circumstances, in Lombard Street with three postulants. The need for uncloistered sisters who would be free to go about the streets and visit the poor in home, hospital, and jail was very great at the time. They were out and about the day after their arrival. An epidemic of cholera had broken out and they helped to nurse the ill and alleviate distress. They quickly prospered to become “Reputedly the best institution that ever was in Galway”.