Sacred Heart Jesuit Church
O'Connell Street
About
In 1650 Fr. David Wolfe, a native of Limerick, who had known Saint Ignatius Loyola in Rome, came to Ireland as Papal Nuncio. He established a church and school in Limerick. Fr. Wolfe himself was executed in 1588. However, the Jesuits managed to maintain their connection with Limerick through some bad times. In 1859 they opened their school in the Crescent, and in 1869 their present church was opened and dedicated to the Sacred Heart. The facade dates from 1900 and the church is well decorated inside. The side altar of Our Lady of Lourdes was the first such in Ireland. In the 1960s the adjoining Crescent College was closed, and the teaching staff moved to a modern comprehensive school in the southern suburbs.
