DR DANIEL DELANY WAS APPOINTED BISHOP OF KILDARE AND LEIGHLIN IN IRELAND IN 1783. HE HAD ALREADY AS A CURATE AND PARISH PRIEST WORKED HARD TO EDUCATE THE CATHOLICS OF HIS PARISH AND IN SO DOING HE HAD ESTABLISHED A GROUP OF WOMEN TO ASSIST BY GIVING SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASSES. GRADUALLY THIS WORK EXPANDED AND HE DETERMINED TO ESTABLISH TWO TEACHING ORDERS, ONE OF WOMEN AND ONE OF MEN, TO CARRY ON THE WORK HE HAD COMMENCED. THE FIRST TO BE ESTABLISHED WAS THE ORDER OF WOMEN, FOUNDED IN 1807 AND DEDICATED TO OUR LADY AND ST BRIGID, AN IRISH SAINT WHO HAD FOUNDED A MONASTIC ORDER AT KILDARE IN THE 5th CENTURY FOLLOWING THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. DR DELANY THUS LINKED TOGETHER THE PAST AND THE PRESENT IN HIS FOUNDATION. FOR MANY YEARS THE ORDER MAINTAINED ITS TWO HOUSES AT TULLOW AND MOUNTRATH BUT BETWEEN 1842 AND 1860 THREE NEW HOUSES OPENED IN IRELAND. IN 1883 CAME THE FIRST OVERSEAS FOUNDATION IN AUSTRALIA AND BY THE LATE 20th CENTURY THE ORDER WAS ALSO ESTABLISHED IN ENGLAND, USA, NEW ZEALAND, NEW GUINEA AND PARTS OF AFRICA. TODAY THE SISTERS STILL CARRY ON THE APOSTOLATE OF THEIR FOUNDER DR DELANY AS WELL AS THE ORIGINAL ST BRIGID IN EDUCATING YOUNG GIRLS AND CARING FOR THE POOR IN SOCIETY.

IN 1883, AT A TIME WHEN THE ORDER WAS STILL RESTRICTED TO JUST FIVE HOUSES THROUGHOUT IRELAND, A CALL CAME FROM DR MURRAY, BISHOP OF MAITLAND, FOR SOME SISTERS TO HELP IN THE EDUCATION OF CATHOLIC CHILDREN IN HIS LARGE DIOCESE. SIX SISTERS LEFT MOUNTRATH CONVENT AND MADE THE LONG JOURNEY TO AUSTRALIA WHERE THEY ESTABLISHED AN INDEPENDANT HOUSE AT COONAMBLE, AT THAT TIME PART OF MAITLAND DIOCESE. NO GREATER CONTRAST TO THEIR NATIVE IRELAND COULD BE IMAGINED THAN THIS HOT LONELY OUTPOST ON THE BLACK SOIL PLAINS OF OUTBACK NEW SOUTH WALES, YET THEY DID NOT FALTER AND SOON ESTABLISHED THE SCHOOL WHICH CONTINUES TO THIS DAY. IN JANUARY 1886 A SECOND FOUNDATION, THIS TIME FROM TULLOW, WAS MADE AT ECHUCA IN VICTORIA. OTHER VICTORIAN FOUNDATIONS FOLLOWED AT BEECHWORTH (NOVEMBER 1886), FOUNDED FROM ABBEYLEIX, WANGARATTA (1887), FOUNDED BY SISTERS FROM GORESBRIDGE AND FINALLY A COMBINED FOUNDATION AT ARARAT (1888) BY SISTERS FROM BOTH THESE LATTER TWO CONVENTS. THE WORK OF THE SISTERS PROSPERED AND IN 1893 AUSTRALIA WAS MADE A PROVINCE. THREE YEARS LATER AUSTRALIA WAS SPLIT INTO TWO AND THE PROVINCES OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA WERE ERECTED. WITHIN A SHORT TIME BRANCHES HAD SPREAD TO MANY OTHER PARTS OF NEW SOUTH WALES, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, QUEENSLAND, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, NORTHERN TERRITORY, PAPUA-NEW GUINEA AND NEW ZEALAND, THE LATTER OF WHICH SUBSEQUENTLY BECAME A SEPARATE REGION IN ITS OWN RIGHT.