Members of the Convent of Mercy in Skibbereen ca. 1900. Catherine McCauley had founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831 in Dublin to care for the poor and the sick and to educate poor children. By 1837 the sisters established a house in Cork. Nuns from the order first came to Skibbereen in 1860 when four sisters from Kinsale opened a school in the town. They remained in Skibbereen until July 2003. (NLI, LROY 10247)