The Bon Secours Sisters are leaving Tralee today after 144 years.
A Mass is being held to wish the remaining nuns well, as they depart for Cork.
On September 8th 1879, at the invitation of Lady Donovan, four Bon Secours Sisters came to live in Tralee to care for the poor - Sisters Marine, Hilary, Ferdinand, and Catherine.
The congregation first lived in Denny Street, then moved to a larger house on Strand Street in 1882; this is the convent the sisters still occupy.
Between 1902 and 1937, the sisters cared for the sick in the town’s infirmary, as well as in their homes.
Between 1937 and 1987 the Bon Secours Sisters ran Edenburn, first as a unit for patients suffering from tuberculosis, and later as a home for the elderly.
In 1921, the sisters purchased a large residence with eight acres a short distance from the convent on Strand Street; they opened a hospital there in 1922, which was known as the Bon Secours Nursing Home.
Since then, it’s been significantly upgraded and extended, and today the Bon Secours Hospital Tralee is a 150-bed acute hospital, employing around 500 people and offering a wide range of consultancy services.
This morning, the 10 o’clock Mass in St John’s Church, Tralee will be offered for the Bon Secours Sisters who are leaving Tralee, after the order’s presence in the town for 144 years.
People are welcome to meet the sisters before they depart for Cork.
