Irish Wheelchair Association and Peadar Doogue

One of the great success stories to come out of Athy in recent decades was that of the Irish Wheelchair Association Branch founded in 1969.  Its later development necessitated the involvement of many locals, all of whom willingly gave of their time and expertise to Athy’s branch of this fine organisation.  One such person was Peadar Doogue whose name over the years has become synonymous with that of the Irish Wheelchair Association.  The genial banjo player from Avondale Drive first came to prominence locally after he picked up the rudiments of banjo playing from the late Percy McEvoy of Carlow.  As a young lad while working in Perry’s, Peadar was a guest player on the Asbestos Factory Show put on in St. John’s Hall in the early 1960s.  Fr. Joe Corbett, the local curate, organised annual Shop and Factory Variety Shows as a fundraiser for the new St. Michael’s Church and by all accounts these shows were enjoyable and important cultural events in which there was huge involvement by locals, young and old alike.

Peadar, who now admits to having been able to play only three tunes on his banjo at that time, sufficiently impressed the late Denis O’Donovan, Pat Hannigan and Maurice Shortt and he was asked to take part in a K.A.R.E. concert which they were putting on in the Grove Cinema.  He protests that his performances had nothing to do with the subsequent demolition of St. John’s Hall and the Grove Cinema!

Peadar’s musical talents were soon thereafter harnessed for the benefit of the local Wheelchair Association branch members and from then onwards he was forever to be linked with the Wheelchair Association.  As a volunteer worker he joined the numerous other local volunteers who helped Sr. Carmel Fallon in her pioneering work for wheel chaired persons.  Fundraising was Peadar’s major contribution to the Association and he recalls with justifiable pride his involvement in the Árd Rí campaign of 1984 when he was elected to represent his native county of Kildare in the National competition.  Sponsored walks held a particular interest for Peadar and he organised local groups throughout Leinster and beyond to meet the ever increasing financial needs of the Association.  These very successful events in which radio personality Donncha O’Dulaing participated were later extended to include an annual international sponsored walk.  The first trip abroad was in 1986 and Peadar participated in the following year’s event and in every subsequent annual overseas walk.  The list of countries in which he has participated in sponsored walks over the last 24 years is highly impressive and ranges from Brazil to China and almost every country in between.

The charity fundraiser extraordinaire worked for 29 years in John Perry’s Garage and in September 1992 took up full time work with the Irish Wheelchair Association.  As a fulltime fundraiser his abilities were thereafter to be wholly devoted to the cause of the Association to which he had committed as a volunteer for the previous 20 years or so.

Peadar was initially responsible for fundraising in counties Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford but over time his remit extended to all the South Eastern counties, as well as the Midland counties as far north as County Longford.  Organising local groups and supporting them in their work was a key element of Peadar’s role and his marked success in that regard was a major contribution to the growth of the Irish Wheelchair Association.  The local branch opened its Day Centre, Teach Emmanuel, in April 1988 and its ability to cater for upwards of 20 wheelchair members each day owes much to the work of its wonderful staff and the many volunteers who help the Irish Wheelchair Association in so many ways.

Peadar has played a major part in the continued success of the Irish Wheelchair Association and especially its Athy branch.  The very first fund raiser, a draw held at Christmas 1969, brought in the sum of £190 for Sr. Carmel’s dedicated team of workers.  Today the annual turnover of the Irish Wheelchair Association which operates 65 centres throughout Ireland is in the region of €60 million.  The drive, initiative and pleasant persuasiveness of Peadar Doogue and his colleagues have made the difference to an organisation which provides such important facilities for wheelchair bound persons.

Peadar Doogue, now aged 65 years, has reached retirement age and will now be reverting to the voluntary role within the local Wheelchair Association which has been so much part of his life for the last 40 years or so.  To mark his contribution to this great organisation the members and staff of the Irish Wheelchair Association have organised a retirement party for Peadar which will be held in Athy Golf Club on Friday, 1^st April.  Contact Catherine Conlon at Teach Emmanuel if you would like to attend what will surely be an enjoyable night.  Peadar promises to bring his banjo and assures me that he has extended his musical repertoire which however will always include his all time favourite - “The Sash”.

Eye on the Past 900

On Thursday last the Athy branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association celebrated the 50th anniversary of the founding of the first branch of the National organisation. Teach Emmanuel was ‘en fete’ for the occasion as volunteers, past and present, returned to acknowledge the wonderful work undertaken by that most underrated of organisations.

The I.W.A. was founded in 1960 by a small group of wheelchair users who had participated in the first Paralympics Games held in Rome. In September of that year the inaugural meeting of the I.W.A. took place on 10th November 1960 in the Pillar Room of the Mater Hospital Dublin, attended by several members of the Irish Paralympics Games team, as well as a number of civic minded individuals. Given the later history of the Athy branch of the Association it is, I feel, significant that the founding meeting was held in the Dublin hospital established by Mother Mary Vincent Whitty. This was the same Sister of Mercy who came to Athy in 1852 to take charge of the new Convent of Mercy and the nearby Convent Schools.

The Irish Wheelchair Association was founded primarily to improve the lives of people with physical disabilities and today the organisation has a network of 20,000 members with over 2,000 staff and many dedicated voluntary workers supporting and encouraging independence for all. The I.W.A. seeks to improve equality and access for wheelchair users as well as providing employment and housing, while encouraging social interaction. A quarterly magazine ‘Spokeout’ is published and made available to members of the Association.

Pride of place at the 50th celebrations went to Sr. Carmel Fallon and Sr. Alphonsus Meagher, both Sisters of Mercy who were part of the small group who in 1968 established the local branch of the I.W.A. It was these two Mercy nuns who with their colleague, the late Sr. Dolores, formed a girls club in Athy in 1968. The young club members were encouraged to visit wheelchair users in their homes and very soon the possibility of establishing a branch of the I.W.A. in Athy became a reality.

The driving force in setting up the branch was the Co. Galway born Sr. Carmel Fallon who entered the convent in Athy in August 1935. The year was 1969 and very soon the local branch developed as socials for wheelchair users were held in Mount St. Mary’s, annual Christmas dinners were arranged and summer holidays were spent in boarding schools operated by the Sisters of Mercy. None of this could have been done without the help of volunteers, both male and female, who from the very start devoted their spare time and energies to helping Sr. Carmel in her determined effort to provide services for the disabled, while integrating them fully into the local community.

Amongst the early volunteers (and apologies if anyone has been overlooked) were Leo Byrne, Lily Murphy, Mary Malone, Mary Prior, Michael Kelly, Bridget Brennan, John Morrin, Tommy Page, Paddy Timoney, Dinny Donoghue, Phoebe Murphy, Caroline Webb, Peadar Doogue, Fr. Lorcan O’Brien and Fr. Denis Lavery.

The Athy branch was in time to provide a fulltime activity service for the disabled and the first Day Centre outside of the association’s facility in Clontarf, Dublin was opened in Athy. Teach Emmanuel was developed on a site in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital and represented a partnership between the Health Board and the Irish Wheelchair Association. It also confirmed, if confirmation was needed, that the diminutive nun from the West of Ireland had an admirable record of achievement since arriving in the South Kildare town at the height of the economic war of the 1930s.

In 1992 Sr. Carmel was appointed president of the Irish Wheelchair Association National Organisation and held that position for 10 years. She is now retired from active involvement in the day to day work of the local association, but still retains a kindly watching brief over the work of Teach Emmanuel.

The 50th celebration was graced by the presence of many of the volunteers, past and present, without whose work and efforts over the years the local branch of the Wheelchair Association could never have been expected to survive. That it has survived and indeed prospered, despite depending so heavily on voluntary financial donations and voluntary workers, is a measure of the generosity, not only of the volunteers involved, but also of the Irish public who can always be counted upon to help those who need their help the most. The Athy branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association can be justifiably proud of its many achievements in helping the physically disabled to better integrate with the local community. At the same time the people of Athy and district can take pride in the continuing success of a local organisation whose presence is a welcome addition to the medico social facilities of south Kildare.

Last week I wrote of the new Traffic Management Plan for Athy and referred to an alternative plan proposed by a group which I understood was the Irish Farmers Association. In fact I am told the plan in question arises from discussions within the Athy Traffic Action Committee and has the support of a large section of the business community. I gather their plan has not yet received the backing of the Town Council but perhaps that support will come when the Council members sit down with members of Kildare County Council to consider the Traffic Management Plan prepared by the Council’s consultants.

Hugh Bolger of 6 Offaly Street passed away last week. A native of Ballylinan he worked for many years in the Wallboard factory and his funeral was marked by a Guard of Honour of members of Ballylinan Gaelic Football Club and by the attendance of many of his former work colleagues from the now long closed Barrowford complex. Hugh married Loy Hayden, now sadly deceased, whom I fondly remember as part of the Offaly Street family of the 1950s. She and her brother Seamus lived with their aunt Mrs. Kitty Murphy and her husband Joe at No. 3 Offaly Street before moving to No. 6 when the Taaffes vacated that latter address to move next door to No. 5.

I had departed Athy for ‘foreign parts’, i.e. Naas, before Hugh married Loy and moved into No. 6. I got to know him over the years and he became part of the familiar Offaly Street background at a time when several of the older families were still living there. It is now a street much changed from my young days and the community of which I was a member and of which Hugh was later a welcome part of, has disappeared. Hugh was one of the last links with that street community and his passing is much regretted. He is survived by his daughters Sinéad and Áine and his grandchildren to whom our sympathies are extended.

Eye on the Past 900

On Thursday last the Athy branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association celebrated the 50th anniversary of the founding of the first branch of the National organisation. Teach Emmanuel was ‘en fete’ for the occasion as volunteers, past and present, returned to acknowledge the wonderful work undertaken by that most underrated of organisations.

The I.W.A. was founded in 1960 by a small group of wheelchair users who had participated in the first Paralympics Games held in Rome. In September of that year the inaugural meeting of the I.W.A. took place on 10th November 1960 in the Pillar Room of the Mater Hospital Dublin, attended by several members of the Irish Paralympics Games team, as well as a number of civic minded individuals. Given the later history of the Athy branch of the Association it is, I feel, significant that the founding meeting was held in the Dublin hospital established by Mother Mary Vincent Whitty. This was the same Sister of Mercy who came to Athy in 1852 to take charge of the new Convent of Mercy and the nearby Convent Schools.

The Irish Wheelchair Association was founded primarily to improve the lives of people with physical disabilities and today the organisation has a network of 20,000 members with over 2,000 staff and many dedicated voluntary workers supporting and encouraging independence for all. The I.W.A. seeks to improve equality and access for wheelchair users as well as providing employment and housing, while encouraging social interaction. A quarterly magazine ‘Spokeout’ is published and made available to members of the Association.

Pride of place at the 50th celebrations went to Sr. Carmel Fallon and Sr. Alphonsus Meagher, both Sisters of Mercy who were part of the small group who in 1968 established the local branch of the I.W.A. It was these two Mercy nuns who with their colleague, the late Sr. Dolores, formed a girls club in Athy in 1968. The young club members were encouraged to visit wheelchair users in their homes and very soon the possibility of establishing a branch of the I.W.A. in Athy became a reality.

The driving force in setting up the branch was the Co. Galway born Sr. Carmel Fallon who entered the convent in Athy in August 1935. The year was 1969 and very soon the local branch developed as socials for wheelchair users were held in Mount St. Mary’s, annual Christmas dinners were arranged and summer holidays were spent in boarding schools operated by the Sisters of Mercy. None of this could have been done without the help of volunteers, both male and female, who from the very start devoted their spare time and energies to helping Sr. Carmel in her determined effort to provide services for the disabled, while integrating them fully into the local community.

Amongst the early volunteers (and apologies if anyone has been overlooked) were Leo Byrne, Lily Murphy, Mary Malone, Mary Prior, Michael Kelly, Bridget Brennan, John Morrin, Tommy Page, Paddy Timoney, Dinny Donoghue, Phoebe Murphy, Caroline Webb, Peadar Doogue, Fr. Lorcan O’Brien and Fr. Denis Lavery.

The Athy branch was in time to provide a fulltime activity service for the disabled and the first Day Centre outside of the association’s facility in Clontarf, Dublin was opened in Athy. Teach Emmanuel was developed on a site in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital and represented a partnership between the Health Board and the Irish Wheelchair Association. It also confirmed, if confirmation was needed, that the diminutive nun from the West of Ireland had an admirable record of achievement since arriving in the South Kildare town at the height of the economic war of the 1930s.

In 1992 Sr. Carmel was appointed president of the Irish Wheelchair Association National Organisation and held that position for 10 years. She is now retired from active involvement in the day to day work of the local association, but still retains a kindly watching brief over the work of Teach Emmanuel.

The 50th celebration was graced by the presence of many of the volunteers, past and present, without whose work and efforts over the years the local branch of the Wheelchair Association could never have been expected to survive. That it has survived and indeed prospered, despite depending so heavily on voluntary financial donations and voluntary workers, is a measure of the generosity, not only of the volunteers involved, but also of the Irish public who can always be counted upon to help those who need their help the most. The Athy branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association can be justifiably proud of its many achievements in helping the physically disabled to better integrate with the local community. At the same time the people of Athy and district can take pride in the continuing success of a local organisation whose presence is a welcome addition to the medico social facilities of south Kildare.

Last week I wrote of the new Traffic Management Plan for Athy and referred to an alternative plan proposed by a group which I understood was the Irish Farmers Association. In fact I am told the plan in question arises from discussions within the Athy Traffic Action Committee and has the support of a large section of the business community. I gather their plan has not yet received the backing of the Town Council but perhaps that support will come when the Council members sit down with members of Kildare County Council to consider the Traffic Management Plan prepared by the Council’s consultants.

Hugh Bolger of 6 Offaly Street passed away last week. A native of Ballylinan he worked for many years in the Wallboard factory and his funeral was marked by a Guard of Honour of members of Ballylinan Gaelic Football Club and by the attendance of many of his former work colleagues from the now long closed Barrowford complex. Hugh married Loy Hayden, now sadly deceased, whom I fondly remember as part of the Offaly Street family of the 1950s. She and her brother Seamus lived with their aunt Mrs. Kitty Murphy and her husband Joe at No. 3 Offaly Street before moving to No. 6 when the Taaffes vacated that latter address to move next door to No. 5.

I had departed Athy for ‘foreign parts’, i.e. Naas, before Hugh married Loy and moved into No. 6. I got to know him over the years and he became part of the familiar Offaly Street background at a time when several of the older families were still living there. It is now a street much changed from my young days and the community of which I was a member and of which Hugh was later a welcome part of, has disappeared. Hugh was one of the last links with that street community and his passing is much regretted. He is survived by his daughters Sinéad and Áine and his grandchildren to whom our sympathies are extended.

Sr Carmel Fallon’s legacy

Last February on the occasion of her birthday I had intended to write of a gracious lady, small of stature but big of heart, who has had an extraordinary impact on the lives of many people who for one reason or another are seriously physically handicapped. However the best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

Carmel Fallon was born two months before Pearse and Connolly marched up O’Connell Street and seized the General Post office. Kilcreest, Loughrea in County Galway was her birthplace but I see that the Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland gives the place name as Kilchrist, a parish about three miles south west of Loughrea.

She entered the Athy Convent in August 1935. It was a great period for vocations, both for the priesthood and the many religious orders, branches of which were once to be found in almost every town in Ireland. Economically it was a difficult time for the Irish people. The economic war which resulted from De Valera’s withholding of the annuities claimed by Great Britain under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 would have another few years to run.

The number of young women who entered the Athy Convent of Mercy, especially from the western counties, has always intrigued me. County Galway, particularly, was for decades a ready source of postulants for the Sisters of Mercy, why I have never been able to answer. 19-year-old Carmel Fallon travelled to Athy in August 1935 to the south Kildare town which was still in the grip of an unemployment crisis following its unsuccessful bid for Ireland’s first sugar factory.

Just a few weeks before she arrived Fr Michael Browne, a Dominican friar and a future cardinal of the church, gave the annual retreat to the Athy Sisters of Mercy. His brother, Maurice, had been a curate in Athy for a few years previously but transferred to Bray around this time.

The young Galway girl was one of several girls who joined the Athy convent around the same time. Indeed their numbers were such that it was found necessary to enlarge the novitiate in the local convent. Sr Mary Carmel took her triennial vows on 16 February 1938 and three years later pronounced her final vows. With her on that latter day was another young nun who will be remembered by many of my readers, Sr Michael Hickey.

Sr Carmel attended Carysfort College in Dublin to train as a primary school teacher and on completion of her training returned to the convent primary school. She spent her teaching years in the old St Michael’s School and in later years with the junior infant boys. Apart from classroom teaching Sr Carmel was also involved in tutoring pupils in both violin playing and singing and prepared many students for school concerts.

Fundraising for the new primary school which opened on 23 October 1958 was another activity in which Sr Carmel and many of the other local nuns were involved. Sales of work, school concerts, jumble sales and concerts in the Town Hall were organised and overseen by Sr Carmel and her colleagues in a prolonged effort to accumulate the local contribution of £18,666 which the Department of Education required to be paid for the new school, which was estimated would cost £112,000 to build. Does anyone remember the show Bits and Piecesput on in the town hall in May 1957 by the Oblate Boys Club of Inchicore under its director Tim O’Leary? It was a great success and the same Tim O’Leary who was a brother of Sisters Joseph and Bernard would be involved in several other fundraising activities for the new school.

Many of the sisters, including Sr Carmel, were involved in preparing the primary school pupils for a production of their operetta The Boy Mozart, again a school fundraising venture which was put on in the town hall in May 1956. An entry in the convent annals notes with disappointment “the support by the people was not commensurate with the labour”.

Sr Carmel, with Sr Michael Hickey, was instrumental in securing a remedial class for young pupils attending St Michaels primary school who needed additional help. Initially volunteers were engaged to help out but persistent lobbying of the Department of Education eventually resulted in sanction for a remedial class in the local school. It is of interest to note that Athy Lions Club donated a prefab for the remedial class. Sr Carmel was also responsible for enlisting for the first time the services of a psychologist for St Michael’s School. Twelve years before retiring from teaching in 1980, Sr Carmel, with Sisters Dolores and Alphonsus, set up a club for young girls. She continued to work with the girls club, even while undergoing a diploma course in community care in Maynooth College. It was however for the setting up and helping to develop the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) in Athy and nationally that Sr Carmel is now best known.

The IWA as a national organisation was formed some 40 years ago at a time when services for people with limited mobility was practically non-existent. With the intention of better integrating people with disabilities into their local community Sr Carmel, together with Sisters Alphonsus and Dolores, encouraged the members of the girls club to visit the disabled in their own homes. Social evenings, home visits and day outings for the disabled, all promoted by Sr Carmel and her helpers, eventually led to the formation of an IWA branch in Athy in 1969. The local branch grew as socials were held in Mount St Mary’s, annual Christmas dinners were arranged and summer holidays were spent in boarding schools belonging to the Sisters of Mercy. None of this work could have been achieved without the help of the day volunteers, both male and female, who from the very start devoted their time and energies to helping Sr Carmel in her twin aims of providing much needed services for the disabled, while at the same time integrating them more fully into the local community.

The Athy IWA was eventually able to provide full day activity service for the disabled within the south Kildare catchment area when Teach Emmanuel was opened on a site in the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital. This facility represented a part-nership between the Health Board and Athy IWA and confirmed Sr Carmel’s admirable record of achievement since arriving in Athy over 70 years ago.

In 1992 Sr Carmel was appointed President of the IWA national organisation. It now caters for a membership of over 20,000 and her appointment as national president was a timely and well-earned acknowledgement of her pioneering role in the development of services for the disabled in county Kildare. Sr Carmel retired from that position in 2002 but still retains an interest in the work of the Wheelchair Association at local level. She is often to be seen at Teach Emmanuel which is a permanent monument to the energetic and innovative work of the diminutive nun from county Galway.

In the past I have had occasion to mention the community related work of different member of the Sisters of Mercy here in Athy. Sr Carmel, Sr Consilio, Sr Dominic, Sr Joseph are but some of the Mercy Sisters who have done trojan work amongst the people of the area as part of the Mercy mission to the people of Athy.

The legacy of the Mercy Sisters will live on, long after the religious order founded by Mother Catherine McAuley has ceased to exist