Stepping-stones. Stepping stones of all sizes and shapes linking past and present and leading on to the future.

This was one of the main themes at the celebration on Tuesday March 6th, 2001 which marked a very happy and memorable day for the members of the Mercy Family Centre in Cork Street, Dublin. It was the day when the women for whom the Centre was set up in 1980 came into their own.

Chris McCarthy, Sr. Carmel Byrne Cork St, Junior Minister Eoin Ryan, Irene Taylor Co-Ordinator and Sr. Caitriona O’Hara

In an atmosphere of lively celebration the deeds of the Centre were formally handed over to the Board of Management. Chris McCarthy and two other local women who were part of the original group set up by Sr. Margharita and Sr. Johanna O’Connor, received the deeds on behalf of the group and the local women became the new owners of the center. Chris made a moving speech of gratitude at the trust they felt had been placed in them by the Sisters of Mercy in handing over the ownership of the property and she and Irene Taylor, the present Director, described some of their plans for the future.

There was a look back then over the stepping stones of the past, to 1815 when a local philanthropist built the Stove Tenters building from which the area takes its name for the impoverished Hugenot weavers, to 1872 when the first Sisters came to Cork Street to live in what was by then a Hostel for homeless women and children and built the schools to which they gave all their energies for over a hundred years. A look at the 1980’s when local women and children experienced another kind of disadvantage and the Family Centre was set up. An appreciation of all who developed and supported the Centre over the years. A look at the future which the women hope to shape for themselves and a look at the future of the whole Cork Street campus when the Hostel and Convent will be part of an ambitious social housing scheme for the area.

 

Caitriona O’Hara rsm
South Central Province