The oak leaf represents our rich Irish heritage joined together with the gum leaf from our Australian tradition.
The oak became significant when Bishop Daniel Delany, founder of the Brigidine Sisters, planted an oak sapling from Kildare (‘Cill Dara’ Church of the Oak) in the grounds of what is now the Brigidine Convent in Tullow. He did this to make the link between Brigid’s monastic foundation at Kildare and the newly re-founded Order of St. Brigid (Brigidine Sisters) on 1st February 1807. Kildare Ministries adopted the gum leaves, indigenous to Australia, to mark the beginnings of our new story.