Plans to develop Edmund Rice heritage site

A PLANNING application is to be submitted to Waterford City Council over the coming days for a development project designed to transform the historic Mount Sion site on Barrack Street into one of Ireland’s premier ecclesiastical and heritage tourism sites.

The development at the Edmund Rice International Heritage Centre is the first major refurbishment of the site since the beatification of Blessed Edmund by Pope John Paul II in 1996.

The mortal remains of the founder of the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers rest at Mount Sion and it remains the principal site for the veneration of his relics. It is also where the then Edmund Rice established his first community school in 1802.