It is 40 years since the congregation of the Sacred Heart in Armagh took the enlightened and daring step of amalgamating the Convent of the Sacred Heart and the Sacred Heart Intermediate School to form Saint Catherine’s College.
In October, there was an exhibition in the school to acknowledge the contribution of the sisters of the Sacred Heart to education in Armagh and to celebrate 40 years of all-ability education.
Such was the success of this event that it will be rerun this Saturday, June 14, due to public demand. The school will be open to visitors from 11am – 4pm.
The exhibition will have, as its centre-piece, the original 1851 Convent Register which records the names of the first pupils who attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart in post-famine Armagh.
Photographic displays cover the 40 years of Saint Catherine’s College and additional images will capture something of the separate lives of the Convent Intermediate School and the Convent Grammar School with its prestigious boarding department.
School publications, items that survived the convent chapel fire in 1964, newspaper clippings, and framed photographs will also feature.
Of special interest to the wider Armagh community will be the availability of convent registers going back to 1959 and a selection of Mount Saint Catherine’s bound registers which were retained from the 19th Century.
Other fascinating original items will allow previous boarders to look back at the records the nuns kept of daily events in the boarding department.
Those who attend the exhibition, and it is open to all, will receive a commemorative booklet of stories to mark the Daichead Bliain Ag Fás (Forty Years a-Growing).
Also available will be a booklet of photos celebrating the opening of The Sacred Heart Intermediate School in 1956 – the first voluntary intermediate school in Northern Ireland!
There will also be guided tours of the school buildings and grounds throughout the day.
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