A commemoration ceremony to remember Carmel Kirwan was organised recently by IMPACT’s school secretaries’ branch. A beautiful stone chair was unveiled in Carmel’s honour at the Three Sisters marina in New Ross, County Wexford. Carmel’s husband Frank, and her children Dymphna, Mark and Garreth along with family, friends and IMPACT representatives attended the event.

“It is nice to think there is a little bit of IMPACT in New Ross. This memorial is fitting tribute to Carmel and to her tireless work on behalf of school secretaries throughout Ireland over many years, was the driving force behind the school secretaries’ branch from the very beginning. She was a tireless advocate for the recognition of the work of school secretaries nationwide”, said IMPACT president Jerry King.

Carmel made an immense contribution to organising and supporting school secretaries countrywide over four decades. She worked in St. Mary’s Secondary School, New Ross, from 1978 until her retirement in 2006. She established a network of school secretaries in the South East; in the early eighties became involved in the precursor to IMPACT, the LGPSU, school secretaries’ vocational group and actively promoted membership of the union for this isolated group of workers.

She was chair of the vocational group from 1989 until its dissolution in 2007 when the IMPACT school secretaries’ branch was formed. She acted as chair of the new branch for eighteen months, she was also a member of her local Wexford branch for some time.

Patricia Whelan, a long term colleague of Carmel’s in the vocational group and the school secretaries branch also spoke at the event. “Carmel was a true champion for school secretaries. She was a strong advocate for continuous up-skilling and constantly campaigned for training to be provided and funded centrally for all school secretaries. When the IMPACT branch was formed in 2007 she prepared a handbook for the new branch committee which has been a tremendous help and assistance to them for many years.”

Photo credit: Jim Campbell Photography Wexford

This news item was amended on Wednesday 9th September.