History of Marist
presence in Lismore.
In September 1911 the Marist Provincial named a staff of Marist Brothers to found a Primary school for boys in Lismore. Brother Paulinus McColl was the first Director and he was accompanied by Brother Owen Reginald. They were welcomed to Lismore by Bishop Carroll on October 15th 1911. On the same day the Bishop blessed the school where they were to work; the first boys’ school in the Diocese.
The original Marist Brother’s school building was a three-roomed wooden building which housed the three upper primary classes, years four to six. There was also two rooms in the front of the school, one of which functioned as a washroom, bicycle room and general utility space and the other as a sitting room. At the rear of the school was another small room used by the Brothers as a kitchen and dining room for their breakfast and lunch. The cost of the whole building was 700 pounds. On the day of the official opening, the 15th October 1911, the parishoners presented the Brothers with a horse to better enable them to travel between the house in High street (which was their residence) and the school.
For the first sixteen years after the brothers’ arrival in 1911, they resided at ‘Craig E-Lis’, a house in High Street. At the time there was no bus service or transportation available to the Brothers so they made the daily pilgrimage to and fro the school dressed in their heavy black serge soutanes. They attended mass every morning then took their breakfast and lunch at the school. Each afternoon they faced the hilly climb home. Conditions in the High street house were quite primitive. They had no gas or electricity and no town water. Their evening meal was cooked on a wood stove and the house was lit by kerosene lamps. Gas was connected in 1913 but water was not connected until 1924.
The residence was too small to have a room set aside for a chapel so one room within the house served as a parlour, dining room and prayer room. The growth of both the school and the Brothers’ community necessitated a change of residence at the cost of 2,200 pounds on the corner of Keen and Orion streets, the site of the current Monastery. The Brothers moved into the house in February 1927.
The first house located at 8 Keen street is shown below. The current monastery, still located at 8 Keen street, was blessed and opened on August 1970. This is now the location of the Marist House of Light, a new retreat ministry which commenced in January 2025. A community of three Marist Brothers supports the ministry of the Retreat house and maintaining a presence in Trinity Catholic College.
