The more things change, the more they stay the same.
This time last year KillarneyToday.com published a fabulous photograph of the Presentation Convent in Killarney with a light illuminating every window in the landmark three-storey building.
That historic image was captured by photographer Eamonn Keogh shortly after darkness fell on 31st December 1999.
It was then a building bustling with life, with a bright light flickering softly in every window while, in the warmth inside, the congregation of Presentation Sisters busily made their final preparations to ring in a new year and a new millennium.
Almost a quarter of a century later, time has sadly caught up with the beloved religious order. With numbers dwindling dramatically and ill health impacting on the lives of so many of the sisters, the doors of the convent were quietly closed and bolted in November 2021, marking the end of a tradition that had been part of the Killarney landscape for over 230 years.
The building remained in darkness, a still, silent, poignant monument to another time, and its future remained uncertain until it was acquired by a businessman last July for a sum close to €3 million, with proceeds going to the retirement costs for the nuns who served the town so well and for so long.
Now, however, as Marie Carroll O’Sullivan’s fabulous photograph highlights, there is once again a light shining in every window in the beautiful building in the shadow of St Mary’s Cathedral as it awaits the arrival new temporary occupants who are fleeing from a bloody war in Ukraine.
The listed stone building, on a 1.422-acre site at Cathedral Place, has been painstakingly and carefully restored by the new owner, under the watchful eye of the conservation department of Kerry County Council, and 20 bedrooms rooms have been given a long overdue upgrade.
Priceless and protected features of the convent (pictured above) include an original chapel with stained glass windows, a marble altar and pitched pine pews, original fireplaces and an extensive original Italianite tiled floor on the main hallways and in the chapel.
There is also an 1830’s bellows organ in the chapel which predates the actual building.
Planning permission will eventually be sought for the ultimate long-term plans of the new owner but for now, this Christmas, the lights will again flicker warmly in the windows to remember those no longer there and light the way for those to come.
Rain and wind and candlelight
And let us pray a prayer tonight:
For every soul, since life is brief,
Little of trouble and less of grief.
And set a light at the windowpane,
To guide love home
Through night and rain.
Madison Julius Cawein
KillarneyToday.com wishes all our dedicated and loyal readers, advertisers, friends and supporters a wonderful, peaceful and laughter-filled Christmas
