Sisters bow out after 168 years

The direct involvement of the Sisters of Mercy in primary education is almost at an end in a Kinsale school where six nuns first taught 700 girls at the end of the Great Famine.

St Joseph’s National School stands on the same site at the top of the town where the first classes were held in 1845.

But the 130-pupil school will amalgamate next autumn with nearby St John’s primary school, a smaller school with around 60 boys enrolled.