Society of the Sacred Heart, Armagh, Northern Ireland

Context

Creator(s): Society of the Sacred Heart, Irish-Scottish Province

• Administrative History ↴

  The Society of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic religious congregation founded in France in 1800 by St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, in response to the extreme violence of Revolutionary France. In such a broken society Sophie Barat hoped the Society of the Sacred Heart would make present the love of God revealed in the Heart of Christ and help the restoration of Christian life in France. Its major work was the education of young women of the rich and the poor classes. The Society of the Sacred Heart quickly expanded within Europe and beyond, and came to Ireland in 1842. Members use the suffix "RSCJ" which stands for Religieuses du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus, or Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It currently has a presence in forty-one countries. In 1851 a second Convent of the Sacred Heart was founded in Ireland at Armagh, at the express wish of Dr. Paul Cullen, newly appointed archbishop of Armagh. That year Mother Eliza Croft and five sisters from Roscrea arrived in Armagh in response to a letter from Dr. Cullen, Archbishop of Armagh to Dr Kirby, President of the Irish College in Rome; ‘I have been speaking about getting over some ladies of the Sacred Heart to Armagh and I am told that it would be an excellent place for them. There is no school for young ladies in the entire province of Ulster. There is no Convent at all in Armagh and the town is large and respectable.’ They rented a house knows as the Pavilion from Captain Algeo. By 1853 the new foundation was beginning to take shape and the convent provided; a poor school for three hundred children, a day school for forty children and a boarding school for eighteen children. The new Primate Dixon gave the convent and schools whatever assistance he could. In July 1856, John Stanly, solicitor, bought the Pavillion and gave the sisters notice to move as he wished to take up residence in the house. In 1857 No. 2 Charlemont Place was rented as the new convent and Poor school continued in No. 24 Abbey Street. In June 1859 the sisters negotiated to take over the land known as Tullasney in the town land of Lurgyvallon. The land was named Mount St Catherine on the suggestion of Primate Dixon and the sisters moved into their new home in June 1859. The community joined with the Armagh people in facing years of poverty and social, religious and cultural deprivation in the aftermath of the Great Famine. In those early years, the sisters reached out, not only to the school-going population but, through evening classes, to the working women of the parish. In 1956 a third school, the Convent Secondary Intermediate School, was opened in the grounds of the Convent. In September 1973 The Sacred Heart Secondary Intermediate School and the Sacred Heart Grammar School amalgamated. It was decided that the name of the new schools should be Saint Catherine's College, Convent of the Sacred Heart. Between 1973 and 1975 the boarding school was phased out. In 2001 the future of Sacred Heart Education was secured in Armagh with the establishment of the Sacred Heart Trust Armagh. The two Sacred Heart Schools, Mount St Catherine's Primary School and Saint Catherine's College, became part of Saint Patrick's Educational Trust in the Archdiocese of Armagh Society of the Sacred Heart. In 2001 the Society of the Sacred Heart celebrated 150 years in Armagh.

• Archival History ↴

  The collection forms part of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Irish-Scottish Province archival collection. It was deposited to the Provincial Archives Office, Society of the Sacred Heart, Irish-Scottish Province in 1994. Material deposited from Saint Catherine’s College, Armagh, Northern Ireland or Society of the Sacred Heart, Armagh, Northern Ireland.

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Official Transfer