The Phoenix Creative Psychotherapy Centre (PCPC) hosted a tribute night in the Absolute Hotel to celebrate her life to date and the amazing commitment and dedication she has contributed to the most vulnerable and marginalised in Limerick city, including members of the Traveller community.
It was attended by Mayor John Moran, friends and family but sadly not the lady herself due to declining health.
Born in 1936, Sr Mary Carmel felt the calling during her teenage years and was greatly attracted to the work done by the Salesian Sisters. She spent her novitiate at Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire before returning to Limerick and attending Mary Immaculate College to become a national school teacher.
Catherine Walsh, one of the organisers of the tribute night, said Sr Mary Carmel’s special love was teaching Traveller children.
“The Salesians had been engaged in this work since the sixties. The sisters felt at that time that it would have been difficult for many of the pupils to fit into the ordinary education system. From 1971-1976, Sr Mary Carmel led the work with the Travellers at Fernbank House in a special classes setting.
“She trained the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children, adolescents and adults in our Limerick city community. She brought the Travellers, who in that era were provided with but a few halting sites by the local council, from their roadside trailers around the city and provided facilities for washing, clothing for the families, meals and, eventually, education by providing classes at the convent,” said Ms Walsh.
Sr Mary Carmel progressed to training the young people to equip them with the skills for adult life. She improved the provision of special classes for Traveller children from ages four to 14.
In 1976, Sr Mary Carmel left her Fernbank project in good hands under very able people and the special classes, finally recognised by the Department of Education, became part of the Salesian Infant School.
A new chapter began in Sr Mary Carmel’s life when she founded St Martin’s Centre in 1976 in Francis Street and with the support of the St Vincent de Paul Society devised an outline scheme to provide a centre that would help Traveller children and adolescents
“She identified a need to provide educational and training programmes for teenagers from the economically disadvantaged and the Traveller communities. Now , with the support of her Salesian Community, volunteers and the generosity of local business people this plan became a reality for her, in an adapted garage in Francis St, Limerick City. This premises was donated by a local businessman. Sr Mary Carmel wanted the project to develop to become ‘a door to life’ to youngsters from deprived families,” said Ms Walsh.
She said Sr Mary Carmel was a person with great vision and each time she felt she had completed her mission, she set out on another. In 1994, she decided to do an Art Psychotherapy degree because she sensed that young people's needs were not being fully met in St Martin's Centre. She sensed that their mental health and wellbeing needed more attention and support.
On her return to Limerick, she set up the Self Help Project which eventually became The Blue Box and served 20 Limerick city schools. In 2015, the original team, including Sr Mary Carmel, set up Phoenix Creative Psychotherapy Centre (PCPC) in order to reach people in the community rather than just through the schools. PCPC now has 10 therapists contracted to provide service to resource centres around the city.
Sr Mary Carmel, ever-resourceful, successfully applied to the JP McManus Charity Pro Am and acquired a 10 year lease on three rooms at Tait House in Southill in 2021. After overseeing the refurbishment, now aged well into her 80s, she retired from her long life of work due to declining health.
Ms Walsh said this is merely an outline of Sr Mary Carmel’s life's mission to help and serve so many young people in our city.
“As St John Bosco, founder of the Salesian Order, taught us ‘Education is a matter of the heart’ and Sr Mary Carmel gave her heart and soul to this belief throughout her lifetime of dedication and commitment,” concluded Ms Walsh.
During the tribute night, songs from Compassion, The Life and Work of Sister Mary Carmel O' Donoghue, a charity album which documents the nun's life through song were played for attendees