The new social housing is to be developed at the site of the former Our Lady’s Hermitage building, on the Marist College grounds, which been in a state of dereliction in recent years.

Work on housing for older people at Marist site in Athlone to begin next year

Adrian Cusack

Published: Fri 15 Aug 2025, 4:50 PM

Construction work on a social housing development of 55 apartments for older people next to the Marist College in Athlone is expected to start between April and June of next year.

The Dublin-based Tuath Housing agency is behind the plans to incorporate 28 apartments in the former Our Lady's Hermitage building on the grounds of the Marist College, coupled with a new three-storey block that would contain 27 apartments.

Last October, Westmeath councillors paved the way for the project to proceed by approving a contravention of the Athlone Town Development Plan to allow the site be used for housing. The land had been zoned for 'educational, community and institutional use' previously.

When contacted by the Westmeath Independent for an update on the project, a spokesperson for Tuath Housing said it was due to start in the second quarter of next year.

"This project is currently scheduled to begin construction in Q2 of 2026, with an estimated 18-month delivery timeline," the spokesperson said.

This would mean that, if everything goes according to schedule, the first residents would be moving into the new apartments at the tail end of 2027 or early in 2028.

"At present, Tuath manages over 350 homes in Westmeath, having delivered our first home in partnership with Westmeath County Council in 2009," the spokesperson added.

"We have a further 105 homes in our delivery pipeline for this local authority area to help to meet local housing need."

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A design image showing part of the planned social housing apartment development on the grounds of the Marist College, Athlone.

All 55 of the new apartments, which will comprise a mixture of one-bed and two-bed units, are to be allocated for social housing use.

The former Our Lady's Hermitage building has been in a state of dereliction for many years now, and was the scene of a significant fire in March of 2008.

Speaking last October, Westmeath County Council chief executive Barry Kehoe said the new use for the hermitage building was badly-needed.

"The Marist hermitage has been disused for a number of years, has been the subject of vandalism on occasion, and has been falling into disrepair," said Mr Kehoe.

"This is a very welcome development to convert the hermitage itself into residential units, and to build a further block behind the hermitage for 27 further apartments on the site as a whole."

The local authority official added that the project would not affect plans for the development of a new Marist College secondary school.

He said the council was "very much aware of the future development of a new school on the (Marist) lands," and that this been taken into consideration throughout the evaluation of the planned Tuath Housing scheme.