A drop in the number of nuns entering the Benedictine Order has forced the prestigious Kylemore Abbey School in Connemara, Co Galway, to plan for its closure.
After operating for 84 years as a boarding school, Mother Abbess Magdalena FitzGibbon said the decline in vocations to the order had necessitated the closure of the secondary school in 2010.
"In common with other orders, many of our sisters have reached retirement age and with no new entrants, we no longer have the personnel necessary for the management and trusteeship of the school. We very much regret having to make this decision but having looked at the options, we are left with no alternative," she said.
In a letter to parents, staff, the Department of Education and Science and local primary schools, Mother FitzGibbon said it was with great sadness that the trustees decided to close the school in August 2010.
After the Benedictine nuns took possession of Kylemore Castle in November 1920, they opened the Abbey as a girls secondary school two years later. The school was opened to day students from the surrounding area since 1928.
There are 137 students enrolled in Kylemore, including 49 boarding students, of which 34 come from outside Ireland.
Around 36 people are employed in the school; 23 are teaching staff, but only one is a member of the Benedictine community. The Benedictine community at the Abbey overall has now fallen to around 14 nuns.