Dominican Cabra Sisters

The beginnings of the Dominican Sisters in Ireland can be traced back to 1644 to Galway. Here, the first women gathered to live the Dominican way of life. Their story is one of persecution and exile and for some years the group had to leave Galway and go into exile to safety in convents on mainland Europe. Eventually, in 1686, two sisters, Juliana Nolan and Mary Lynch returned and others soon joined them.

In 1717, a small group were sent from Galway to Dublin. A century later their followers leased a house in Cabra, on the outskirts of Dublin, a convent that was to become the mother-house to many groups of Dominican women around the world.

By the 1860′s the community in Cabra was strong enough to send members to other areas in Ireland and as missionaries abroad.

Sisters went to South Africa, Louisiana and Australia. More recently, new missions have opened in Argentina (1968), Brazil (1991) and Bolivia (1999).

As women Dominicans, we also draw inspiration from the life of St Catherine of Siena, a lay Dominican – a woman of faith, a preacher and a mystic.