|
Monday the 14th September, the irony of which, in the context of the simultaneous opening of “Roscrea Leisure Centre”, was simply extraordinary. As Roscrea Leisure Centre was being opened for the very first time, the last two Sacred Heart Nuns in Roscrea Sr. Maria Brady and Sr. Madeline Minogue, were leaving Roscrea for the very last time, thus bringing to an end 167 years of service to the community and presence of the Sacred Heart nuns in Roscrea.
Directors & Staff Of RCTLC Make A Special Presentation To Sr. Maria Brady and Sr. Madeline Minogue Before Their Departure From Roscrea
In the late 1990’s it was the Sacred Heart Nuns who transferred to RCTLC their premises and grounds on the convent hill under very very generous terms so that Roscrea Leisure Centre could be built on the Convent Complex. Again this was before the Roscrea Leisure Centre project was recognised as such or approved by either Government or the Local Authority and at a time in which many of influence in the community certainly did not have the same confidence or hope in RCTLC’s objective and goal as the Sacred Heart Nuns did.
Subsequently and much to the regret of many at the time, the County Council took the decision that Roscrea Leisure Centre would not be built on the Convent Complex. Hence, the convent, which was to allow RCTLC to provide a Health & Fitness Centre for the benefit of the Community for the past 10 years, had to be sold. It was the sale of this property which allowed RCTLC to donate €2 million to the creation of “Roscrea Leisure Centre” and which enabled it to open on the very day and ironically, the very hour, the Sacred Heart Nuns bade farewell to Roscrea and its people making their way to their new homes in Dublin. Needless to say the people of Roscrea would not to-day have “Roscrea Leisure Centre” were it not for the generosity of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Hence, as Roscrea thinks of the opening of Roscrea’s Leisure Centre on what one might refer to as “Roscrea’s 9/14” the Roscrea people will always remember the day’s association with that of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and in turn their pivotal association with the story of our community’s dream and quest to create something that never was before, “Roscrea Leisure Centre”.
| 
