Credit union founder to be honoured

CREDIT Union pioneer Nora Herlihy is to be honoured in her native Duhallow tomorrow with a conference on the role of rural women in a recession and the launch of a book to commemorate the centenary of her birth.

Born in Ballydesmond, on the Cork-Kerry border in 1910, she worked as a national school teacher.

Along with two others, Séamus P MacEoin and Sean Forde, she introduced the Credit Union movement to Ireland, in 1958, when many families were in abject poverty.

Today, there are 521 credit unions in Ireland, with more than three million people having €11.8 billion in savings.

The conference starts at 11am tomorrow in the James O’Keeffe Institute, Newmarket, Co Cork. At 4:30pm, Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Jimmy Deenihan will launch the book, The Origins, Ethos and Evolution of Co-operative Credit in Ireland.