The team at Danú Childcare Centre in Rathmore has paid a warm and emotional tribute to Mary Agnes O’Keeffe, the founder of the busy community childcare service, who has passed away.
They said when the history of childcare in Kerry is penned, Mary Agnes will be in that book and she will be remembered as a natural giver of her time, patience and positivity.
They said Mary Agnes and her friends planned, studied, fundraised and opened Rathmore Childcare Centre in 1986, determined that childcare services needed to be developed for all children rather than just those who could afford to attend.
“Her vision was for quality early childhood experiences for all, and those children who played on her wooden climbing frame with the slide in her first play group, knew they’d hit the jackpot,” said Danú spokesperson Úna Moynihan.
Soon the playgroup had grown into a créche, a parent and toddler group, a Montessori and a playschool, with every opportunity for trips out on the bus or up to the football field that Mary Agnes could fit in to the day.
Her enthusiasm for quality childcare continued and resulted in the construction of the new purpose built Danú Childcare.
“Danú exists thanks to visionaries and Mary Agnes was the cornerstone,” said Úna.
“However in typical Mary Agnes fashion, every effort to praise or thank her was met by her pointing out what everyone else had done instead.
“What happened the children that Mary Agnes welcomed in her doors? Some became employees of Danú. Some sent their own children to Danú. On hearing of her passing, I hope all of them will stop for a moment and reflect on how blessed they were to have had Mary Agnes in their lives,” Úna Moynihan added.
Mary Agnes, of Presbytery View, Rathmore and late of Annaghmore, Headford, passed away, peacefully, on December 27 in University Hospital Kerry.
Predeceased by her husband Tim, her sisters Nora and Kathleen and her grandchildren John and Doireann, she is mourned by her sons and daughters Gerard, Kieran, Shane, Louie, Pádraig, Siobhán and Sheila. Kieran is the current chairperson of Rathmore GAA Club.
She is further survived brother Pat Joe, sister Peggy, daughters-in-law Lisa, Kay and Fiona, sons-in-law Stephen and Cathal, Louie’s partner Edwina, grandchildren Cian, Gearóid, Darragh, Cathal, Grace, Freya, Miriam, Tim, Iona, Siún, Liam and Rían, brother-in-law Sean, sister in law Kathy, nieces, nephews relatives and friends.
Reposing at O’Keeffe’s Funeral Home, Rathmore on this Friday from 5.30pm to 7.30pm, the funeral cortege will leave her residence Saturday at 9.15am for Requiem Mass at 10.00am in St Joseph’s Church, Rathmore with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery.
The Mass can be viewed live by clicking on Rathmore live-cam on the following link https://www.rathmoreparish.ie.
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