On 19th March, the feast of St. Joseph, in the year 1867 four nuns from The Presentation Sisters in Clondalkin arrived in Lucan to take up residence in the newly built convent. They were also invited by the Parish Priest to take charge of the existing girls' school (now St. Anne's Hall). Attendance at the school continued to grow but the condition of the building had deteriorated to such an extent that in 1896 a new school was required for the pupils.
The school, costing £2,000, was built by was Mr. John Cromer from Lucan. A bright new school with four classrooms was connected to the convent by a a pathway on land donated by Mr. Edward Quigley.
It wasn't until 1954 that a new extension was added to the Primary School. It now consisted of nine classrooms, a domestic economy room, a covered play shelter and central heating. It accommodated 400 children.
In 1961, four new classrooms were built over the play shelter to cater for the growing number of pupils in The Secondary Top. The first Leaving Cert was in 1961 when 8 pupils sat for this exam. Later, in 1969 when the present St. Joseph's College was built, these four classrooms were vacated but were quickly filled with primary school pupils from the rapidly expanding local population.
In 1973 a three-roomed prefab was added to accommodate the number of pupils that had by now reached 1,100.This number included Junior Infant, Senior Infant and First class boys who would later, having made First Holy Communion transfer to St. Mary's Boys' School.
In 1974, the Girls' School said goodbye to the boys, as from then on the boys began school in the Boys' School following the building of 18 new classrooms there.
In 1981 a new building comprising a further 8 classrooms, Resource Room, Staff Room and General Purpose Room, was built to complete the school and it stood like this until it underwent a three classroom extension and refurbishment in 2016.
Sources: Lucan Old and New by Sr. M. John Bosco
A History of Lucan by Mary Mulhall