Working with disadvantaged communities

The Best Designers in Ireland

Inside a run-down convent in Cork, a community of nuns, Travellers, recent immigrants, ex-offenders, recovering addicts, old and young came together to visualise and prototype a whole raft of future social services. This is what the Irish Examiner made of their story.

Nuns have put their faith in a business process used by Nike and Apple to transform their convent into a centre for tackling social problems - the first of its kind in the country.

The Presentation Order in Cork threw open the doors of its historic Evergreen Street complex last night to unveil details of the remarkable project.

The nuns confirmed they planned to enact some of the most innovative suggestions at their convent, which will be redeveloped as a multi-faith community support centre over the next 12 months.

• a project to help reduce tensions between the elderly and teenagers

• the development of an art gallery focused on community perceptions of Cork from the views of young people, recent immigrants and the unemployed

• and gardening classes and other clubs aimed at supporting integration

South Presentation convent was founded in 1775 by Nano Nagle. Her remains are buried within its grounds.

At one time, 50 nuns lived and worked in the community, providing education for the deaf, a refuge for the elderly and meeting spaces. But numbers have dropped to just five.

However, the sisters said there is still a need for direct engagement with the community.

Sister Anne Coffey said more and more services were being created by people who live at a distance from those they are trying to support.

“We took a leap, in faith, to show what happens if you put your trust in people to come up with their own solutions,” she said.

“We are so pleased with the outcomes that we will be putting some of the findings into practice straight away.”

Mr McDougall congratulated the nuns for their amazing foresight and commitment.

“For the first time, ordinary people in Cork have been using the design techniques that led IBM to abandon super-computers in favour of the PC, and established Apple as the coolest company on the planet,” he said.