Remembering one of our founding members on International Women’s Day
Sixty years ago, equality between women and men was embedded in the Rome Treaty as one of the European Union’s fundamental values. In 2017, there are more women in work, more women graduating from universities, and more women active in politics or in top positions at European companies than ever before.
It was also around sixty years ago that a woman, Nora Herlihy, from Ballydesmond on the Cork-Kerry border played a pivotal role, along with Sean Forde, an employee of Peter Kennedy Bakers, Dublin; and Séamus P. MacEoin, from Kilkenny, a Civil Servant working in Dublin, in the founding of the Irish credit union movement.
Teaching in Dublin in the 1950’s, Nora witnessed poor living conditions, hunger, and sickness due to high unemployment in the City. She had pity for those less fortunate who had no way of solving their problems. These people struggled to manage their money and many of them were in the grip of money lenders. It was then that Nora Herlihy set about putting in place a plan for these people to take control of their finances and went on to study the co- operative system.
On the 6th March 1954 with Mr. Thomas Hogan, Nora formed the Dublin Central Co-Operative Society. It was set up to help create employment and to tackle the affliction of emigration. Nora carried out further research into the idea of Credit Unions and soon the fledging Credit Union movement was born.
The first two Irish credit unions were founded under Nora’s guiding influence, one within a cooperative in Dublin, with an associational common bond, in Dun Laoghaire and the other, Donore Avenue Credit Union, within a large urban community in the centre of Dublin City. Nora became secretary to the Irish League of Credit Unions which was founded in 1960 (then called the Credit Union League of Ireland) and which operated from the main living room of her house in Dublin for many years.
Nora was unselfish in the time and effort she put into setting up the credit union movement and encouraging others to work together for the common good and in 1967 the Credit Union Act came into being.
As of 31st March 2014, Credit Unions affiliated with the Irish League of Credit Unions had 3.3m Irish members, one of the highest number of credit union members per capita and €14.3 billion total assets.
With International Women’s Day being recognised all over the world, we would like to acknowledge the incredible work and contribution’s made by Nora Herlihy to communities around the country.
Ends
“Founders of the movement” (PDF). CU Focus: 28–29. Spring 2008
http://thememorytrail.com/story/2395
Depuis, Nicola (2009). Mná Na HÉireann: Women who Shaped Ireland. Cork: Mercier Press. pp. 103–106. ISBN 1-85635-645-0
ILCU Factsheet, www.creditunion.ie/whoweare