Our Ladys Abbey
School Details
Location
About
Our Ladys Abbey is an all‑girls primary school situated in the picturesque village of Adare, County Limerick. The school provides education for Junior Infants through 6th class within a warm, caring Catholic environment that seeks to nurture each pupil’s academic, spiritual, physical, social and emotional development. A strong ethos of inclusion underpins the curriculum, ensuring that children of all abilities, backgrounds and creeds are valued and given equal opportunity to thrive. The teaching programme incorporates a broad range of specialist initiatives, including the Aistear framework for early childhood learning, Gaelbhratach Irish language immersion, Literacy Lift‑Off, Discover Primary Science & Maths, as well as active participation in the Active Schools, Green Schools, Digital School of Distinction and Health Promoting School schemes. Recent extensions have added a purpose‑room, a modern computer suite and an additional classroom (2016), providing contemporary learning spaces while retaining the historic character of the original convent building. The school’s Catholic ethos is reflected in its commitment to fostering a supportive community of pupils, staff, parents, the Board of Management and the local parish. Through collaborative effort the school aims to develop independent, self‑motivated learners who are confident, respectful and happy in themselves, with others and in the wider world.
History
Our Ladys Abbey Girls School was founded by the Sisters of Mercy on 20 April 1854, occupying two rooms behind the Trinitarian (White) Abbey in Adare. The convent, restored by Lord Dunraven in 1850, housed seven sisters and the school quickly grew, with almost 200 pupils enrolling on the first day. By the turn of the 20th century the school offered classes from Infants to 7th (and occasionally 8th) class, and during World War I welcomed three Belgian refugee girls. In the 1940s the Sisters introduced secondary education up to the Leaving Certificate, which continued until 1972. After the Sisters left in 1975, the school became a fully lay‑run Girls National School. Major renovations in the mid‑1990s, a blessing and renaming by Bishop Donal Murray in 1997, and further extensions in 2004 (purpose room and computer room) and 2016 (additional classroom) have modernised the facilities while preserving the school’s medieval heritage symbolised in its crest.