Crescent College Comprehensive SJ, formerly known as the College of the Sacred Heart, is a Catholic secondary school located on 40 acres (160,000 m²) of parkland at Dooradoyle, Limerick, Ireland. The college is one of a number of Jesuit schools in Ireland.

The school operates under the trusteeship of the Society of Jesus and the Minister for Education, with the Jesuit Provincial appointing a majority of the members of the Board of Management, including the chair. The ethos is Jesuit and Catholic, although most of the teaching staff are lay-persons. A number of Jesuit priests live on campus at the Della Strada residence, which hosts the Jesuit Refugee Service. In 2001 the school appointed its first lay headmaster.

Crescent now sits on 40 acres of grounds and gardens landscaped by Fr William Troddyn and the late school gardener, P.J. Brennan, who together 'purloined' clippings and bulbs from the Limerick region in order to use on the grounds of Crescent, including an avenue of copper beeches. The school also maintains a nature garden to attract wildlife to the campus.

Some commemorative inscription stones from Castle Lane, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, were built into the external walls of the old Georgian school buildings at the Crescent in Limerick city centre. Another stone from the Castle Lane site, inscribed with a cross and the motto IHS, dated 1642, was brought to Dooradoyle in 1973 and was placed above the 1973 Foundation stone of the present site.

The first Jesuit school in Ireland was established at Limerick by the Apostolic Visitor of the Holy See, David Wolfe. Wolfe had been sent to Ireland by Pope Pius IV with the concurrence of the third Jesuit General, Diego Laynez. He was charged with setting up grammar schools "as a remedy against the profound ignorance of the people". In 1565 preparations began for establishing a school at Limerick.

At his instigation, Richard Creagh, a priest of the Diocese of Limerick, was persuaded to accept the vacant Archdiocese of Armagh, and was consecrated at Rome in 1564. An English Jesuit, William Good, joined him. Good had completed the Spiritual Exercises in 1562 under the direction of Mercurian, and at his recommendation had been formally admitted to the Society of Jesus shortly before by Jean Montaigne at the Jesuit college in Tournai.

Wolfe intended to establish the first Irish Counter-Reformation school at Limerick, with the Primate's approval, and so it was intended that on arrival in Ireland Good should travel there, and be accompanied by a Limerick-born Jesuit scholastic, Edmund Daniel, who was a kinsman of Wolfe's. Ultimately, Good and Daniel would not enjoy a good relationship.

This early Limerick school operated in difficult circumstances. In April 1566 Good sent a detailed report to Rome of his activities via the Portuguese Jesuits. He informed the Jesuit General that he and Daniel had arrived at Limerick city two years beforehand and their situation there had been perilous. They established contact with Wolfe, but were only able to meet with him at night, as the English authorities were attempting to arrest the Legate. Wolfe charged them initially with teaching to the boys of Limerick, with an emphasis on religious instruction, and Good translated the cathechism from Latin into English for this purpose. They remained in the city for eight months, before moving to Kilmallock in December 1565 under the protection of the Earl of Desmond, where they lived in more comfort than the primitive conditions they experienced in the city. However they were unable to support themselves at Kilmallock and three months later they returned to the city in Easter 1566, and strangely set up their house in accommodation owned by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, which was conveyed to them by certain influential friends.