In 1783, Daniel Delany, coadjutor to James Keeffe, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, established at Tullow, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament.

Keenly aware of the lamentable state to which religion had been reduced by the Penal Laws, he sought to remedy the situation by applying himself to secure the proper observance of the Lord's Day, and the religious instruction of the children and adult women of his parish and diocese.

To inaugurate his work there he formed catechism and reading classes to be held in the church on Sundays, and drew his catechists from the two confraternities.

[1] The Institute of the Brigidines was established by Daniel Delaney, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, at Tullow, County Carlow, Ireland, in 1807.

In order to demonstrate this continuity, he brought an oak sapling with him from Kildare and planted it in the grounds of the new convent in Tullow, County Carlow.

Bishop Delany allowed them to make vows, and thus laid the foundation of the Brigidine Institute, one of the first of the kind founded in Ireland since the Reformation.

From there branches quickly spread to the dioceses of Sydney, Bathurst, Canberra-Goulburn,[3] Perth and Brisbane as well as to the Archdiocese of Wellington, New Zealand, in 1898.