“The old order changeth yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways”
The English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson may not have had Pope Francis in mind proclaiming the Jubilee Year of Mercy nor Mercy International Association opening local doors of Mercy when a significant and unique event took place on 10 December in Tuam. A Door opened under the flagship of HSE – Family Life Resource Centre and Vincent de Paul House on the site of the former Mercy Junior School on the Dublin Road. The Centre, with its location, facilities and services is impressive.
Gathering to Celebrate the Newly-Named Hall
The Newly Erected Sign
The Infant School and site was gifted to the Vincent De Paul when the convent closed. Thanks to the Maureen O’Connell Trust Fund, the Tuam Conference of SVP was in a position to redesign, refurbish, redecorate, extend and elevate the building. Mr Pat Kielty, President of the Western Region of SVP and the local Conference of St. Vincent de Paul are extremely grateful to the Mercy Sisters for gifting the building and site and wished to honour the memory of the Sisters by having some memento in the Centre. So the new Hall is named the McAuley Hall and a plaque bearing the following inscription is on the wall. McAuley Hall is dedicated to the Mercy Sisters Tuam, and their venerable Founder Catherine McAuley.
To mark the historic occasion the teachers who taught in the School from its opening in September 1976 to its closing in June 2000 were invited to a Ceremony to open the Door of the McAuley Hall and view the new Centre and the facilities. The event was a celebration of the Jubilee Year of Mercy and a commemoration of the opening of the First House of Mercy in Dublin and the birth of the Congregation of Mercy in 1831. The ceremony also included the celebration and recognition of the long established tradition and close association between the Mercy Sisters and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Sr. Marcellina was the guest of honour on the day. She was one of the first teachers and the longest serving teacher in the Infant School – you could say she was the anchor tenant, door keeper and guardian of the school. The Infant School as it was known catered for 150 pupils and consisted of four spacious classrooms, a hall, staff room, kitchenette, store room and extensive playground and green area.
Sister Marcellina, the First Principal of the Junior School, seen here through the Open Door
Sisters Marcellina, Margaret Dolan and Mary Kelly; two Inspectors and Mrs Nuala Kelly; Sisters Pascal O’Donoghue, Vera and Teresa Fahy; Archbishop Joseph Cunnane, an unidentified man and Father Dominick Greally, Adminstrator of the Tuam Parish
The first teachers were Sisters Marcellina, Mary Kelly, Margaret Dolan and Teresa Fahy. Members from the present teaching staff who taught in the Infant School were Maureen Dunleavy-Reilly, Ann Burke-Murphy, and Colette Burke-Lydon along with HSE staff working in the Centre joined in the ceremony of crossing the threshold and opening doors to the ministry of mercy.
Sr. Marcellina opened the Door to the McAuley Hall assisted by Fr. Pat Farragher Adm, who blessed the Door and the commemorative plaque. Pat Kielty paid warm tribute to the Mercy Sisters and acknowledged that the life and work of the SVP is quite similar to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy undertaken by Catherine McAuley and her followers. So the ministry of mercy reaches out from this Centre in a new way in this Jubilee Year of Mercy.
The New Building
Sign Showing some of the Services on Site
Teresina Daly rsm
Western Province
