Funding for former Wexford Adoration Convent

By Dan Walsh

An agreement has been signed between the President of Georgia Southern University, Dr. Kyle Marrero, and the Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council, Cllr George Lawlor for the refurbishment of the Adoration Convent in Wexford town.

Wexford County Council purchased the extensive building beside Bride Street Church for accommodation for students from Georgia Southern University in Savannah who are attending a new learning hub which opened in the old County Hall in Spawell Road.

According to Cllr Lawlor; “The signing approves the first tranche of $400,000 for the design stage of the development. The total cost of the project which is estimated to be close to $5,000,000 will see the historic convent transformed into accommodation to house students from Georgia Southern as they attend the university’s Wexford Town Campus.”

The signing ceremony took place following meetings between senior officials from the University and a delegation from Wexford County Council who are present in Savannah to further develop relations between Wexford and the Georgian City which boasts a huge Wexford diaspora.

Georgia Southern University, based in the Savannah area of the state of Georgia, is home to 26,000 students. The university has already begun the process of sending students to their Wexford Campus and intend to greatly increase numbers studying in Wexford in the coming years.

After almost 150 years the remaining seven Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Wexford left their convent at Bride Street for the last time in November 2019 to make the landmark historic building to become a Hall of Residence for American students.  They settled at their new home on Newtown Road.

The enclosed, contemplative community which was established by the late Bishop Thomas Furlong with the sanction of Rome, for the purpose of engaging in continuous adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and praying for the people of the diocese, first came to the town in 1875. The nuns supplied vestments, altar linen, alter breads etc. for the churches of the Diocese of Ferns.