A Dedicated Educator & Gaeilgeoir: Maureen O’Tuairisc lost the ‘grá don múinteoireacht’. In 1984 Sr. Helena of the Sisters of Mercy had the vision to start St Mary’s preschool for the travelling community. This community backed initiative aimed to raise the educational standards among the marginalised community in the town. Initially based in Harbour Road it later transferred to the Parochial Hall on Dunlo Hill. Maureen was Principal there from 1984 -2011. They catered for an average of 14 children in the 3-5 age bracket offering social, personal and educational development for children to prepare them for entry into primary school.
Writes Pat Johnson When Maureen Feeney from An Spidéal married Tom Waters from Indreabháin and settled in Ballinasloe in 1972, they brought a rich vein of public service, culture and community service that has continued to enrich their adopted town. Maureen’s family home in An Spidéal was a hive of industry. Her father worked with Galway Co. Council and made concrete blocks for housing as a sideline. Meanwhile her mother set up and ran a local shop where Maureen was serving before she was ten years old. A native speaker ‘ón gcliabhán’, unlike most of us, Maureen went to school to learn English, progressing to Scoil Mhuire and on to UCG (now NUIG) to study Gaeilge and History. She then returned to teach in her alma mater where she was greatly impressed by the Sisters of Mercy to the extent that she considered taking the veil herself. But then she met Tom at a dance in Tully Hall in December 1969 and they married in June 1970. Tom, a garda who had been stationed at various locations from Glenties, Annegray, Ballyforan and Clonark, was posted to Ballinasloe so Maureen got a job in the Mercy Convent in Ballinasloe again teaching Gaeilge and History. One of her 1972 pupils recalls ‘a vibrant longhaired lady with bundles of energy’. She says it was only when she came to the Gaeltacht that she fully appreciated the Irish language and tradition she had grown up in and she enjoyed handing it on to her students. However in 1974 she chose to become a full-time mother and for the next ten years she stayed at home to mind her nine children, doing occasional substitute teaching when called on at short notice. With four in nappies at one stage, her memories now are of the good times, the excitement of preparing for Christmas, hiding ‘Santa’ with the neighbours until after Midnight Mass and getting ready for the sacraments when not just the recipient but all of the children had to be turned out in their best. A busy family life did not stop Maureen from giving time to the community. She was a member of a very active branch of Conradh na Gaeilge and involved in the Ard Fheis which was held in the town in 1994. She helped organise ranganna Gaeilge, trath na gceist, comortaisí aisti and ceolchoirmeanna. They worked for
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bilingual place names on town street signs and organised Gnó tre Gaeilge and Comortas na bhFuinneog during the annual Seachtain na Gaeilge coming up to St. Patrick’s Day each year. The Conradh also supported the establishment of what is now Gaeilscoil Ui Cheithearnaigh. Maureen was involved in fundraising for the restoration of the Town Hall in 1989, selling 200 tickets for the draw, and collecting 50 of those subscriptions door to door monthly for a year. Maureen was also treasurer of the swimming club and a supporter of Community Games in Ballinasloe. She encouraged her own, and indeed everybody else’s, children to get involved in Community Games, whether it was running, swimming, hurling, football. rugby, soccer, camogie or basketball. Their motto was ‘Bain Triail As (Have a Go)’. Rugby brought them national success with Eamon winning silver and Tomás winning gold. While he was chairman of the Community Games for several years, Tom had a particular love for boxing and Maureen helped him organise tournaments. The boxing club closed for a number of years from 2000 but started up again in 2004. Maureen felt honoured to be invited to open it and to see a memorial cup in Tom’s name presented every year at their annual Ballinasloe Tournament. Maureen sat on the management boards of two national schools and on the boards of Scoil Mhuire and Garbally College at various times. But she never
Maureen enjoyed working with the children and also meeting the parents who would visit to see how their children were getting on. They were lovely natural people, she recalls, and there was great trust between them. She reminisces about the summers of her childhood when the travellers would come to An Sailín about a mile down from their shop for the summer in their barrel-top wagons. It was, she remembers, a relationship of respect. The women would come down to the shop in their wonderful coloured shawls and the men would make tin buckets for the neighbours. Her father, a former great athlete, handball player and runner, was invalided by an accident and the only concert he’d have then was their songs as he sat in his wheelchair. In June 2011 the Department of Education decided to abolish travelleronly pre-schools and integrate the pupils into mainstream education. St. Mary’s was one of the last that was left, ‘thanks to a great Board of Management, staff, parents and the children who came to us’. Maureen is still on the Board of Management of Scoil Ui Cheithearnaigh and of Canal House, while she continues her involvement with Conradh Na Gaeilge, brings her native ‘blas nadúrtha’ to the weekly Ciorcal Comhrá and works with a Bereavement Support Group. Her role as the wife of a garda was one where confidentiality had to be observed. A community guard, Tom was a well known figure around town where he would chat and listen to people’s issues and problems. There was great ‘meas’ on the uniform always and of course on inspection coming up, ‘I had to see that shoes were polished and all that’. Tom took early retirement in 1995 after 30 years service in the Garda Siochána. Illness had a big bearing on his decision. He died on St. Stephen’s