Laois Centenarian Award travels to Australia to honour second recipient

Laois County Council, through Age Friendly Laois, has today announced Sr Eileen Creagh as the second recipient of the Laois County Council Centenarian Award, an initiative that has reached all the way to Australia, where Eileen has lived for over 70 years.

The Centenarian Award is a new programme designed to honour residents of County Laois who reach the age of 100, recognising their lifetime of contribution to family, community and society. Each centenarian is honoured with a commemorative coin, specially designed to mark this achievement.

Speaking on behalf of Laois County Council, the newly-appointed Cathaoirleach Catherine Fitzgerald said: “I would like to extend my warmest wishes to Sr Eileen as she receives her Centenarian Award. To honour a Laois native who has made their life on the other side of the world is a privilege for us at Laois County Council. It shows the strength of the Laois connection, at home and abroad. I warmly congratulate Sr Eileen on reaching this remarkable milestone”.

Sr Eileen Creagh was born in Harristown, Rathdowney, Co Laois on 14 October 1923, to Michael and Ellen Creagh. She was the third of nine children; sadly, their mother passed away on the birth of the ninth child and less than three years later their father passed away from ill health, leaving all nine children orphaned. After her mother’s death, at the tender age of 9, Eileen went to live with her uncle Thomas where she was a great help to his wife Katie in the rearing of their young family, and with general chores around the house and farm.

Attending a convent school in Tullow, she is said to have become quite taken with how kind the sisters treated one another and their students ; subsequently, she was drawn to the religious way of life and decided to enter the Brigidine Order, becoming a Novitiate of the Tullow Order before eventually moving to North Wales for three years as a missionary and teacher, a path which subsequently took her to Australia to join the Brigadines there.

Eileen taught at Randwick for a year and was then sent to Perth to open a new school; she went on to spend a total of nine years in Western Australia and returned in 1954 to Randwick and took on the role of Bursar. Her capabilities were recognised further in 1961 when she was appointed Mother Superior at Cowra NSW, 300 miles from Sydney. In 1990, Eileen was tasked with the care of frail and elderly sisters back in Randwick; and, finally in 1996, it was time for Eileen to retire to a newly prepared hostel for Sisters and Seculars – Brigidine House, Randwick.Sr.

Eileen is now 102 years old and is happily resident in Brigidine House, Randwick, Sydney, where she is in receipt of the best care and companionship. She continues to keep abreast of current affairs and is fully mobile and in the best of health. She keeps in regular contact with family members in Brisbane, Wexford and Rathdowney.