The building is recorded in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (Registration Number: 20854038). It would appear that it was one hundred years old in December 1965.

According to some reports more than 25% of commercial sites in Passage West are vacant compared to a national commercial vacancy rate of about 13%. There are some very obvious examples of dereliction or vacancy, especially the old convent shown in my photographs and the dockyards

Attached seven-bay two-storey convent with gabled double-height end blocks, built c.1870, now disused.

Set overlooking the harbour, this convent complex is a dominant presence in the town. Comprising a long central building, flanked by gabled double-height end bays, it is a well detailed and designed building. The limestone dressings and round-headed openings are particularly notable features. Set adjacent to the red brick industrial school and its related outbuildings, the convent complex played a significant role in the local community in the past.

In 1890 an industrial school was built on the site, also run by the Sisters of Mercy. In the 1940’s there were on average 76 children incarcerated in the industrial school and in the 1950’s there were on average 72 children incarcerated.

Note: In Ireland, the Industrial Schools Act of 1868 established industrial schools to care for "neglected, orphaned and abandoned children". By 1884 there were 5,049 children in such institutions. The Industrial Schools Act was intended to solve problems of juvenile vagrancy by removing poor and neglected children from their home environment to a boarding school. The Act allowed courts to send disorderly children to a residential industrial school.