History of the Abbey

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In the spring of 1843 some local people and clergy came together in the parish school to discuss the possibility of bringing the Sisters of Mercy to Athy. The first Sisters of Mercy had been professed 12 years earlier and already a convent had been established in the neighboring town of Carlow. It was agreed to take up a weekly collection to finance the building. By the 12th of May 1843 £150 had been collected, but an approach to the Duke of Leinster for a site was unsuccessful. Undaunted, the fundraising continued and in August 1844 the parish priest of Castledermot. Rev Laurence Dunne laid the first stone on marshy ground to the west of the parish church.

The building work continued throughout 1845 and 1846, but stopped in 1847 due to lack of funds during the Great Famine. The collection was restarted in 1848, this time under the direction of Rev. Thomas Greene C.C., in whose memory a beautiful Celtic cross was erected many years later in the grounds of St. Michael's parish church.

Dr Paul Cullen, appointed Archbishop of Dublin in 1852, was born in Prospect in the parish of Narraghmore in the year of Robert Emmet's rebellion. He took a keen personal interest in the completion of the convent in the South Kildare town of Athy. Mother Mary Vincent Whitty of the Sisters of Mercy, Dublin advanced £300 to the local people to have the building completed and on the 10th of October 1852 Mother Vincent, who earlier had been responsible for building the Mater Hospital, Dublin, took charge of the new convent, accompanied by two nuns. They remained in Athy for two years until the Sisters of Mercy in Carlow took over the Athy convent as a branch house and sent Sister Mary Teresa Maher and Sister Mary Xavier Downey to take charge.

Sister Mary Teresa Maher was daughter of Patrick Maher of Kilrush who was one of those responsible for bringing the Sisters of Mercy of Athy. She was also a first cousin of Archbishop of Cullen. Mother Mary Vincent Whitty, who opened the Athy convent in October 1852, was the first Sister of Mercy to go on missionary work to Australia where she was later to be joined by a number of nuns and postulants from the convent in Athy.

In 1861 an appeal was made by Rev. Andrew Quinn P.P., Athy, to Rev. Mother Teresa Maher on behalf of his brothers Dr. James Quinn, Bishop of Brisbane and Dr. Matthew Quinn, Bishop of Barthurst, Australia, for nuns for the respective dioceses. In 1865, Catherine Flanagan, a postulant from Athy's convent, traveled to Brisbane and in the following year four more postulants left for the Australian Missions. Amongst the many nuns and postulants who left Athy for Queensland was Sr. Mary Patrick Potter who entered the convent on the 8th of June 1866. She and four companions left for Brisbane on the 26th of February 1868 and they were the last nuns to leave Athy for Australia.
In 1879 Mother Mary Patrick Potter was appointed Superior of the Congregation in Brisbane, a position she held until her death in 1927. She established many convents and schools throughout Queensland and the building of the Mater Hospital in Brisbane was another of her many achievements.

Over the last 140 years the Sisters of Mercy have worked amongst the local people, providing help where required by responding to their spiritual, educational and, sometimes, their material needs.