Saturday, August 27, 2011

Drogheda Mercy presence ends

A public meeting has been held in Drogheda to open a discussion about best to recognise the contribution to the town of the Mercy Sisters after the departure next month of the last three Mercy. 

Sisters Bosco, Dominic and Immaculata were recently bid farewell at a Mass celebrated by Fr Denis Nulty, who said he found that “widespread dismay, annoyance and disappointment had been the predominant reaction through the parish” to the news that they are to leave.  

The closure of the Drogheda Mercy community, the latest move in the congregation’s rationalisation programme, brings to an end an era, which lasted 157 years.

“Needless to say, thousands of lives have greatly benefitted by the Mercy Sisters' presence amongst us over the last 157 years and we wish them well in their new pastures,” Fr Nulty remarked.

The Mercy nuns were a cornerstone of education in Drogheda and were responsible for establishing the Sacred Heart Secondary School and Scoil Mhuire Fatima. 

The order set up a base in Drogheda in 1854 and four years later, opened the Scoil Mhuire Fatima primary school.

In 1879, the Sisters moved to a proper convent and the Sacred Heart secondary school.  

By the turn of the twentieth century, there were 26 nuns in the convent and a new ten-room school to cater for 300 girls was completed in 1926.  

When it was opened by the then Bishop Kyne of Meath, he remarked that it was built with 'no government grants'.

The Mercy nuns were also involved in a nearby hospital and at visitations of the sick and ran a laundry from 1905 to 1947 that they set up to give employment to girls leaving their school; its customers included the wartime army camp in nearby Gormanston.

In 1960, the huge numbers of students seeking secondary education led to the building of the present day Sacred Heart School at Sunnyside.  

Former pupils of Mercy Sisters from Drogheda have included Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

Responding to the tributes, the three nuns who depart next month, thanked priests and parishioners of St Mary’s parish and said the farewell Mass and reception was, “a memorable day, though bitter sweet.”

“We will treasure the memories in union and prayer and wherever we roam our hearts will always remain in our dear home – St. Mary’s Parish,” they said.