Celebrating Fifty Years Serving Communities In Ireland
This is the story of an idea... a great idea that is helping millions of people worldwide to lead better lives. In practice it is simple and, when properly implemented, its effects can be dramatic. Like most great ideas it has stood the test of time.
The Irish credit union movement was founded as a result of the efforts of three dynamic, pioneering and entrepreneurial people namely Nora Herlihy, from Ballydesmond, a teacher based in Dublin; Sean Forde, an employee of Peter Kennedy Bakers, Dublin; and, Séamus P. MacEoin from Kilkenny a Civil Servant working in Dublin.
In Dublin in the 1950’s, they witnessed the effects of high unemployment: sickness, malnutrition, money lending, hunger, poor clothing, poor housing, and inevitably, emigration of one parent or of the whole family. In addition, state unemployment benefits were low and did not last indefinitely leaving many families in abject poverty.
The founders recognised the root of the problem as lying in the scarce availability and poor management of money and resolved to identify a system that would allow people to gain more control over their finances. From their initial pioneering efforts and with the help of hundreds more the Irish Credit Union Movement was born and is now fifty years old.
Today, in 2008 there are 521 credit unions affiliated to the Irish League of Credit Unions with 2.9m members and €13.4m in savings. But figures only tell part of the story. Let’s give credit where it’s most due, to the thousands of Irish men and women whose achievements in their own communities could never be recorded in a balance sheet.
Nora Herlihy and former President of Ireland Eamon DeValera signing the Credit Union Act - 1966
Founders Portrait
L to R: Séamus P. MacEoin, Nora Herlihy, Sean Forde