Killarney & Tralee
As the parish priest of the South Parish, Francis Moylan was closely connected to Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters. In 1775, he was appointed bishop of Kerry and moved to Killarney. While there, he developed a friendship with Lord Kenmare, and both men were keen for the Presentation Order to establish a convent and school in the town. However, it took many years to turn their plan into reality.
Finally, in October 1793, the first Presentation Sisters, Sr Joseph Curtayne and Sr Teresa Lane, arrived in Killarney. The sisters lived in a number of locations in the town for a decade before they moved into a partially-built convent, largely funded by Lord Kenmare. In the 1870s a new convent was built on the site.
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Branching Out – Clonmel Convent Community
In 1809, the Killarney foundation established a convent in Tralee. The initial funding came from Dr Shea Lalor, who donated £1,000 for the establishment of the new convent. The first nuns to move there were unimpressed and recalled in the convent annals that ‘their habitation was an old ruinous house, surrounded by sink and mire in the midst of a noisy milk market…They had not so much as a chair to sit on’.
‘This is the first branch transplanted from the parent tree. Watered by the dew of heavenly grace and animated by the warmth of the love of Jesus, may it take deep root and may it prosper.’
South Presentation Annals, 1793
