Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, one of south Dublin's most distinctive convents and secondary schools, will be sold early next year. The Loreto Sisters announced yesterday they would sell all but one or 1.5 acres of the 14.5-acre site. This is all that is left of the 150 acres they originally owned at Grange Road, which they have been selling off in lots since 1973.
Property market sources estimate the value of the land at £500,000 per acre or more. It is likely to be sold for housing or possibly for hotel development.
Four years ago the order announced that it would close its girls boarding school on the site at the end of the 1999 academic year. Some 80 students will finish their studies there this month, leaving another 20 to continue for one further year.
The provincial, Sister Mary O'Kane, said yesterday the small site remaining after the sale, part of the present garden and orchard, would be used to build a retirement and nursing home for elderly members of the order, 30 of whom are in their 80s and 90s.
In a statement, the Loreto Sisters said: "As well as funding our ongoing works, we propose to use the proceeds to establish a trust fund to enable various charitable projects to be undertaken, which will encourage local community initiatives aimed at bringing about social change and a more just society."
Sister O'Kane said she did not want to say more specifically what these projects would be until the sale of the property early next year.
Loreto Abbey was built in 1822 as the headquarters of the order, which now has members in six continents. Earlier this century it was extended to house the convent, the school, formation house, archives and nursing home which make up today's complex.
In 1928 the young Albanian novice who would later become Mother Teresa studied for two months at the abbey before going to India.