L to R; Conor Coyne, Chief Executive Officer, Kylemore Abbey; Liz McConnell, Executive Director, The Kylemore Trust; Mother Karol O’Connell OSB, Abbess of the Benedictine Community at Kylemore Abbey; Fr Robert Dowd, CSC, President of the University of Notre Dame; Lisa Caufield, Director of Notre Dame at Kylemore. Photo: Courtesy of Kylemore Abbey. Kylemore Abbey marked a decade of partnership with the University of Notre Dame on July 30, celebrating the vibrancy and connectivity of the university’s global campus at Kylemore Castle.
These ten years mark the first third of the 30-year agreement which established Notre Dame’s Kylemore campus in the St Joseph’s Wing of the castle. The academic centre in St Joseph’s Wing was inaugurated in 2016 and is home to leadership development, research, and workshops as well as classrooms.
At the celebration ceremony on July 30, the Benedictine Community of Kylemore presented President of the University of Notre Dame Fr Robert Dowd with a commemorative gift, and Kylemore Abbess Mother Karol O’Connell OSB spoke about the partnership.
“Since the foundation of our Benedictine Community in Ypres, Belgium in 1665, education has been at the heart of our mission. Generations of girls attended our schools and today through our Education and Retreat Centre we continue to make Kylemore a place of learning,” said the abbess. “Our partnership with University of Notre Dame is another mark of this commitment to education and we look forward to the further flourishing of this partnership.”