This is the framework within which the author sets out the difficulties, hardships, and successes of Mary Bellew and her community. Mary herself and her companions were from the Anglo-Irish landed gentry whose families were able to keep their lands after the debacle of James II's disastrous defeat at the Boyne.

The nuns lived in the era of the Penal Laws when they were liable to harassment from the authorities, the worry of financial ruin, falling numbers of boarders and community members. However, they survived to move on to Clontarf and Cabra; by 1819 only five nuns survived. From that remnant in the nineteenth century off-shoots have sprung up in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Louisiana and the Cabra convent and Congregation have survived all these vicissitudes.