The Society of the Sacred Heart, (Central Europe and the Islands) (‘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.

 

A Convent and Schools were first established at Mount Anville in 1865, when the Society of the Sacred Heart used a significant legacy left to it 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 then Irish Scottish Province membership. The Irish Scottish Province passed the trusteeship of the schools on Mount Anville campus to the Mount Anville Sacred Heart Educational Trust (MASHET) in 2007. In 2025 the Irish Scottish Province became a constituent part of the new Central Europe and the Islands Province. 

While the Society continues to grow in the developing world, similar to many other religious communities across Ireland and the UK, it is reducing its footprint to match the needs of an older community of sisters. It is in that context, and the national shortage of appropriate housing for older persons, that the Province has made plans for the long-term use of its Mount Anville Lands.