Presentation Convent

Presentation Convent, Portlaoise

Sisters from the Presentation Order in Carlow first arrived in Portlaoise in July 1824 at the invitation of Rev. Fr. Nicholas O'Connor.

Presentation Convent, Portlaoise

Presentation Convent, Portlaoise

Sisters from the Presentation Order in Carlow first arrived in Portlaoise in July 1824 at the invitation of Rev. Fr. Nicholas O'Connor.

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Rev. Fr. Nicholas O'Connor of Maryborough cordially invited Sisters of the Presentation Order from Carlow to come to the town. Three Sisters arrived, by coach, from Carlow on the 3rd July 1824. By a remarkable act of providence the occupant of the adjoining house, Peter Brennan, had a daughter who wished to join the community. Very little is known about Peter except his remarkable generosity. His daughter, Anna, born and educated in Dublin, did enter the community in the foundation year.
 

Her father gave her the house he occupied, the garden and a field that went with it. It was to become part of the nuns' property by her Act of Profession. Anne's uncle, John Power of Harcourt St., had charge of these deeds; an intimation that he was in the legal business. Peter Brennan had already leased the foundation land for the building of the church to Fr. O'Connor in 1822. So the nuns now had the garden that went with the "old infirmary," a field for "the grass of a cow," a vegetable plot and also a site for farmyard stables and a hen-run. This is now the site of the post-primary school, a donation from the community in 1968.