Churchtown Remembers the Illustrious Tierneys
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FATHER TIERNEY in Cork around 1913.
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CORK - The small village of Churchtown near Buttevant in Co. Cork will host a special commemoration on October 10 in honour of three members of the Tierney family who were born at nearby Mountbridget in the mid-1800s.
At the ceremony the Tierney Memorial Committee will unveil a Pillar of Honour bearing inscriptions outlining the achievements of Fr. Michael and Fr. Jerry Tierney, and their sister, Mother St. Urban.
Fr. Michael Tierney (1859-1931) entered the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) in 1878 in France and was ordained there in 1884.
He ministered in Randwick, Sydney until 1898 when he returned to St. Alban's in England. In 1909 he visited Cork and got local support to buy a house to establish a base for MSCs in Ireland.
He set up Sacred Heart College and built the landmark Sacred Heart Church at Western Road, Cork where he died in 1931. He is being commemorated by MSCs this year as they celebrate the centenary of their arrival in Ireland. See www.mscireland.com.
Fr. Jerry Tierney (1867-1944) also joined MSCs and ministered in New South Wales in Australia, in St. Alban's in England, and at Western Road in Cork.
Their sister Catherine (1857-1933) joined the Bon Secours Sisters in 1879 in Cork and was professed in their Mother House in Paris.
She served in London, in Detroit, and in Baltimore where she built and administered the Order's first hospital in America.
She is commemorated in a stained glass window in the Bon Secours convent in Baltimore and is the subject of a biography - Life of Mother St. Urban.
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart who are celebrating the centenary of their arrival in Ireland are supporting the Tierney Memorial Committee with their commemoration of the MSC founder in Ireland.
A major part of their celebrations is a photographic exhibition featuring the early development of the Society in Cork, the departure of missionaries overseas, and the social and humanitarian work that those missionaries did and are still doing in Third World countries.
The first Irish MSC priest ventured to Papua New Guinea in 1926, and he and two colleagues were murdered there during the Second World War.
Currently, MSCs have missionaries in South Africa, in Namibia, in Venezuela, and in Russia. Some of their priests also minister in Texas and in California, as well as a number of parishes in England.
Their work is funded by voluntary donations. You can read about their history and their work on www.mscireland.com
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