‘Education is no burden to carry’ – tribute to Waterford's Sisters of Mercy
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Dear Editor,
Thanks for the interesting and detailed article on the Mercy Convent, Waterford, in your edition of February 10, 2026.
It brought back a lot of memories for our family.
Our mother, Margaret Josephine (Josie) Hunt (RIP), of Grace's Lane, was lucky to have come in contact with Sr Eucaria.
As my mother would say, “they had nothing” growing up.
She enrolled in St. Carthage’s Commercial Academy to do a secretarial course in the 1950s and Sr Eucaria paid for her to take the final exam. Her family didn’t have the money.
She finished first in the test and got a job in the Corporation as a result.
She used to tell us that her first week’s wages were more than her father, Patrick Hunt, got paid and his working down in the docks all his life.
How a simple act of kindness can influence a person’s life for the better.
All of my six sisters (Mary, Martina, Fiona, Joanne, Melanie, Laura) went to “The Mercy” back in the 1970s and 1980s and remember Sisters Eucaria, Redemptoris, Josepha, Annunciata, to name a few.
As my grandfather Paddy Hunt used to say, “Education is no burden to carry”. It all started down in “The Mercy” and a special thanks at this time to all of the Sisters of Mercy from our family.
Fran Keating,
Lismore Heights,
Waterford City/
Galway
