The Society of the Sacred Heart, Irish/Scottish (‘the Province’), is part of an international community of women in the Catholic Church, founded in France in 1800 by Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat, and established in Ireland in 1842. 

The Province first established a Convent and Schools at Mount Anville in 1865, when it used a significant legacy left to the Province to buy the House and lands from William Dargan (Engineer, father of railways in Ireland), who was in financial difficulties. Over 150 years, the Society educated more than 10,000 pupils, at Mount Anville Schools and at its height, had more than 270 sisters in the Irish Scottish Province membership. The Province passed the trusteeship of the schools on Mount Anville campus to the Mount Anville Sacret Heart Educational Trust (MASHET) in 2007.

Today, the Province is made up of 45 Sisters with an average age of 82 years, all retired. While the Society continues to grow in the developing world, similar to many other religious communities across Ireland and the UK, the Province is preparing for the completion of its mission within the next 30 years. It is in that context, and the national shortage of appropriate housing for older persons, that the Province is making these plans for the long-term use of its Mount Anville Lands.