Dr Connell O’Connell had been Nano Nagle’s doctor in the 1780s. After his death in 1788 his widow Barbara, a member of the wealthy Gould merchant family, donated £1,500 for the foundation of a convent on the north side of Cork city. 

In January 1799, Margaret Fitzgerald and Mary Kenny became the first two sisters to transfer from South Presentation Convent to North Presentation Convent. The annals recounted the departure: The parting farewell was exceedingly moving – the House was likened to a desert, every sister having fled to the solitude of her cell or choir to weep over this general loss. Although the convents were within twenty minutes’ walk of each other, enclosure meant they were unlikely to ever meet again. Barbara O’Connell, the benefactor, moved into the convent until her death in 1806, though she did not become a nun.

Dr Connell O’Connell had been Nano Nagle’s doctor in the 1780s. After his death in 1788 his widow Barbara, a member of the wealthy Gould merchant family, donated £1,500 for the foundation of a convent on the north side of Cork city. 

In January 1799, Margaret Fitzgerald and Mary Kenny became the first two sisters to transfer from South Presentation Convent to North Presentation Convent. The annals recounted the departure: The parting farewell was exceedingly moving – the House was likened to a desert, every sister having fled to the solitude of her cell or choir to weep over this general loss. Although the convents were within twenty minutes’ walk of each other, enclosure meant they were unlikely to ever meet again. Barbara O’Connell, the benefactor, moved into the convent until her death in 1806, though she did not become a nun.

The new convent was far from luxurious. On their first night  the sisters had to use a potato as a candlestick. And things remained tough as the nuns transformed worn out sheets to undergarments and worn chair covers became neckerchiefs in winter. In 1813 the sisters moved to Mallow Lane (now Gerald Griffin Street) a bustling, noisy and smelly street in the north city filled with butchers, butter merchants, grocers, bakers, chandlers and pubs.