Sr Joseph constantly sought to help Athy's young people

I MENTION today the passing of a saintly person. Sr Joseph O’Leary was a Dublin woman who at a very young age joined the Sisters of Mercy here in Athy. She was one of the many who came from all directions throughout Ireland to join the local Sisters of Mercy Convent.

Included in those numbers were Sister Joseph’s own sister, Sr Carmel O’Leary, who joined the Athy convent four years earlier than Sr. Joseph.

When notice of Sr Joseph’s death appeared on RIP it was followed by numerous tributes from past pupils of Scoil Padraig Naofa where Sr Joseph served as a teacher for many years and later as Principal from 1986.

She was the last Sister of Mercy to be principal of the school and on her retirement in 1993 she was replaced by the first lay principal, Mrs Mary English. Sr Joseph was kindness personified and endeared herself to staff and pupils alike.

I first came in direct contact with Sr Joseph in or around 1983 when I was asked to join her, the late Noreen Kelleher and Marie Hunter on an informal committee which intended to engage in a form of social activism to improve the lives of families and young people of Athy.

We set up a Limited Company which is still operational. This led to the opening of several opportunities to improve the social life of Athy’s youngsters.

I recall the Girls Club and the Boys Club which Sr Joseph had set up some years before that, and which operated in the Halla Mór of Scoil Mhichíl Naofa.

Within weeks of the Community Council’s foundation, plans to open a creche in Clonmullin were formalised and a community services centre was opened in the vacant former St Michael’s School in Stanhope Place. This led to the opening of the community centre and a creche in Castle Park, thanks to the generosity of Athy Urban District Council.

Perhaps the greatest contribution to the everyday life of Athy people was the report which resulted from the Community Service Centre’s request to Athy Urban District Council for a social survey of the town.

The Urban Council agreed to our suggestion and Dr Tom Collins of Dundalk Vocational Committee carried out the detailed survey which was subsequently published.

His report led to the setting up of Athy Alternative Project which worked with young people at risk or those involved in criminal activity to improve their life options and encourage participation in the local community. Amongst the early members of the group who managed the project were Judge Mary Martin and Deputy Commissioner Paul O’Toole of the Garda Siochana.

The Athy Alternative Project subsequently led to the formation of a committee catering for counties Carlow, Laois, Offaly and the south of Kildare. The report by Dr Collins also led to the setting up of Athy’s Community Services Centre located in the former St Mary’s School in Stanhope Place.

Athy’s Community Services Centre was given a major boost in 1992 when the Government granted to the Centre funding of up to €150,000 over the following three years.

The grant was a recognition of what Athy Community Services Centre had already achieved.

In the early years of the community council Noreen Kelleher took on the responsibility of producing a monthly newsletter to which I contributed an editorial for each issue. It was printed and distributed throughout the town for many years.

Sr Joseph was a person of tremendous, good sense, which was exhibited during her many years as a teacher and later as school principal. She brought that same good sense to meetings of the community council.

An early decision to ask Dom O’Rourke to restart the local boxing club after it petered out following the transfer of Fr Denis Laverty from Athy.

Dom, who is still involved with the Athy Boxing Club, was able to revive the club and was helped in that regard when given free use of a premises in Nelson Street.

Athy Boxing Club reached heights never before scaled with Irish National Championship winners and Olympian boxers coming from the club.

During all that time Sr Joseph led by example, constantly widened the scope of the Community Services Centre work.

She was a wonderful person who constantly sought to improve conditions in Athy for young people and for their parents.

I started the article by referring to her as a saintly person.

I have no doubt whatsoever that she was saintly and a person, who as a Sister of Mercy, followed the example of the mercy foundress, Catherine McAuley.

The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy in 1852 and in the generations that followed they inspired local people to rise above their poverty and the difficulties they faced day in day out.

In my time, I can recall several other Sisters of Mercy who, following in the footsteps of Catherine McAuley, were champions of the people of Athy. Sr Carmel, who founded the Wheelchair Association, did wonderful work, as did Sr Rosarii who founded the Travellers Club and provided educational facilities for the travellers. I wrote last week of the work of Sr Consilio who founded Cuan Mhuire which celebrated its 60th anniversary recently.

The contribution of the Sisters of Mercy to the social fabric of our local community cannot be overestimated and the passing of Sr Joseph brings sharply into focus how we as members of the local community are indebted to the followers of the venerable Catherine McAuley.