Meet the Founders

Meet the Founders 1:                         Sr Julie Newman

An organic farm, a farm shop, and an ecology centre by definition are things which seek to promote a deeper understanding of our relationship to the natural world. While striving to respond positively to our environmental problems, a sense of contact with the natural world is key.

In our own way we at An Tairseach are a significant part of the global shift towards a more sustainable, biodiverse and community focussed world. If that indeed is where we are going, then a sense of authentic contact with the natural world is where we are coming from.

Sr Julie Newman, one of the founders of An Tairseach, is a force of nature in her own right.

Though she is retired, her understanding of nature, her passion for agriculture and biodiversity, and her lifelong commitment to the creation and preservation of habitats on the An Tairseach farm, remain an inspiration for our daily work and for our future plans.

This year we have begun to explore our roots. We’ve begun to create an archive of interviews with the Dominican founders of An Tairseach.

We see this as an exciting way to preserve the story of how Wicklow Town, unlike any other place in Ireland, came to have seventy acres of organic farmland at its heart, a source of the healthiest in season food, a haven for wildlife that enhances gardens across the town, and a local and international gathering place for people seeking to explore and respond to environmental questions.

Behind the scenes the An Tairseach archive project has already become a repository of fascinating social history, candid accounts of the intersection of religious and environmental commitment, wise and far-reaching reflections on sustainable farming, ecology and the challenge for humanity as the environmental crisis deepens.

One of our archive staff recently walked the farm with Sr Julie, and reported back that her knowledge and her enthusiasm were infectious. Through her eyes every field and hedgerow is familiar, and every feature of the farm has a function and a story.

The An Tairseach farm is a place that she knows well, and partly because she has very deep roots here herself. A native of County Meath, she came to the Dominican Convent in Wicklow as a young broader in the 1950s. At nineteen she entered the Dominican Order, and spent three years at the novitiate in Kerdiffstown, which also had a farm. She trained as a Froebel teacher, and taught for some years in the Dominican Junior School in Eccles Street in Dublin; after which she completed an Arts degree and a H.Dip at Maynooth University, before returning to the Dominican Convent in Wicklow to teach English and Geography. Ten years later she was appointed Principal of the school, a role she fulfilled with enthusiasm for a further decade, before turning her attention in the 1990s to the establishment of the organic farm, farm shop and ecology centre that remain today a vibrant hub of sustainable food production and environmental action, with a wealth of stories and  characters attached to it.

To stand in her company at the edge of the farm on a bright Spring morning, with the broad organic fields rolling down to the Irish Sea, the Murrough Wetlands SAC extending to the north, and the red-brick grandeur of the convent itself like postcard features, is to have a chance to recognise the growth of the town in recent decades. This changing place has been Julie’s home and her working environment for most of her life.

An Tairseach is an extraordinary legacy, and we are proud to acknowledge the vision of our founders. But there’s no time for proud reflections on the farm.

The archive recording we’re looking forward to sharing with you is an immersive podcast experience, loud with birds and full of a spirited and familiar observation of the land.

True to her own nature Julie makes her way energetically down the lane, through one meadow and into another. She’s keen to visit the groves of 12000 trees whose planting she planned and oversaw. And keen to see if there are onions or potatoes being planted in one particular secluded field, which is flanked on one side by a tall crop of glossy green leeks.

A mature shelter belt she tells us is composed entirely of alder trees, the cones from which are favoured by yellow siskins. The stands of Scots Pine nearby attract the siskins.

She marvels at the beauty of the wildflowers as she goes, greeting the springtime like an old friend.

The stems of the anemones are herb-like. The bluebells are uncommonly bright. The tadpoles are gone, but the marsh marigolds are coming soon. A drifting sparrowhawk overhead might be, at first guess, a kite.

Our problems require an intense political will and intense social change. But one wonders if there can be a sustainable future without respect and love of this kind in our lives?

Meet the Founders 2:                             Sr Marian O’Sullivan

‘We stayed with the name An Tairseach because it’s so meaningful. The way we understand is that we here are crossing a threshold from one world view to another. And we have to cross the threshold. And that takes courage. It takes a deliberate decision. We’re a threshold community here that invites people to take that step.’

Sr Marian O’Sullivan grew up on a farm in County Cork. She joined the Dominican Order in 1949, and spent most of her working life in South Africa, as a teacher and in variety of leadership position. She returned to Ireland in 1986, and was elected Prioress General of the Dominican Congregation that same year. After twelve years in that role, she made a commitment to the fledgling An Tairseach project, collaborating closely with Sr Julie Newman, and in 1998 she completed an MA in Ecology at Berkeley University in California.

A linguist by training, and a student of numerous languages (‘In my first year at Stellenbosch University, I had English, Afrikaans, Zulu, French and Latin’), Marian’s articulacy, her writing talent and her skill as a teacher, were central to the establishment and running of An Tairseach for many years. She was chair of the An Tairseach Board from 2002 to 2017, and director of the Ecology Centre from its first opening in 2005 until 2012.

In her archive interviews, Sr Marian speaks warmly of her upbringing in Cork, and explains that her vocation was a matter of personal certainty from a very early age. Asked about her love of the natural world, she explains that growing up on a farm on the banks of the River Lee made the sense of connection part of who she was. Her early experiences later fed her curiosity about the Celtic traditions, and influenced her study of ecology. She speaks about the deeper understanding that motivated her in the founding of An Tairseach, and in her subsequent leadership roles. Conservation, organic farming, the farm shop, and the ecology centre itself are all linked, she explains, to the core educational ambitions of An Tairseach.

For Sr Marian, the idea of personal transformation is central. In order to sustain any hope of environmental renewal, a fundamental change of ‘mentality’ is required. From the perspective of the founders, all who visit An Tairseach are invited to reconsider their relationship to the natural world.

As she says: ‘We are, hopefully, a threshold community here, that invites people to take that step from one worldview, where only humanity matters, to another where we are participants in this one community of life.’

To hear Sr Marian speaking, in an excerpt from the An Tairseach archives, click the audio below:

Music by Alannah Thornburgh

Meet the Founders 3:                             Sr Helen Mary Harmey

‘Right from the beginning, we always had the question of how do we integrate our theology with ecology and evolution?’ – Helen Mary Harmey

Sr Helen Mary Harmey was appointed Chair of the Board of An Tairseach in 2017, the same year that she became a full-time member of the An Tairseach community. But her close association began in the days before An Tairseach was established. She had previously worked closely with the An Tairseach founders; she had in fact been at university with Sr Julie Newman, before spending a stint of more than two decades working in New Orleans.

In the early years, after the Ecology Centre was opened, Helen Mary was able to advocate for and support An Tairseach from Dublin, with the added advantage of being Congregational Prioress for two consecutive terms. If there were some who thought that An Tairseach was an unusual and perhaps even a questionable undertaking, Helen Mary was in a position to lend gravitas to the idealism that underpinned the project, and to make the case for financial decisions that benefitted An Tairseach at various critical junctures. As such, before she was in situ in Wicklow, Helen Mary was a key ally.

Sr Helen Mary grew up in Dublin. She attended Scoil Bhríde, the primary school founded by the nationalist figure Lousie Gavan Duffy, who her mother knew well (the two friends had been members of the revolutionary group Cumann na MBan together). Gavan Duffy’s innovative approach to education included a strong emphasis on the natural world as a principle of Irish identity. The story of Saint Brigid was central, and the changing seasons were always explored and celebrated in the classroom.

‘… We were in the city, and in those days you didn’t go on field trips. But we got a sense of it. I suppose it was embedded in Celtic tradition.’

Helen Mary also attended Scoil Chaitríona, the first second level all Irish school for girls in Ireland which had been founded by the Dominicans in 1928.

In her An Tairseach archive interview, Helen Mary recalled a sense of happiness and freedom in her teenage years, a feeling of not being put under pressure to work or to choose a career path early, and the emphasis on creativity in Scoil Chatríona. ‘I thought I went to school just to enjoy myself.’ But before she finished her secondary education there was a direct question from a Sr Aquinas, which Helen Mary recalled with amusement: ‘When are you going to start to work?’ Ultimately, Helen Mary joined the Dominicans after a process of reflection. A visit to Dublin by a group of Indian nuns who were involved in healthcare made a particular impression on her; this encounter, and then a school project about South Africa, where the Dominicans had missions, prompted the idea that she might one day travel to distant places and try to help people in need. Looking back on those days, she recalled she was seen, by teachers and classmates alike, as a free spirit: ‘To everyone’s surprise, I ended up joining the Dominicans!’

That was in 1961. She then trained as a teacher in Froebel College in Blackrock and completed a degree in Sociology and Geography and at Maynooth University. Her time in Froebel was positive, and she later recalled a sense of enlightened emphasis on such things as personal development and creativity in the curriculum.

‘Froebel College was wonderful training, because it was hands on for teaching, and we had teaching practice each year. And it was a very good grounding in child development, and psychology. Also, we did something for ourselves, which I thought was very interesting. In our second year, we were all invited to choose a subject that we would specialize in. I did English with a lady by the name of Ronnie O’Brien, who was a brilliant teacher, and brilliant in English literature. For me that was great. You could do art, and crafts, or you could do nature study, or anything. It was just for yourself, it wasn’t for an exam; it was intended just for your own development, which I thought was great, particularly in a teacher training setting.’

This vision of varied interests and abilities connects to another of Helen Mary’s recollections in the An Tairseach archive. Speaking of the idea of love as an aspect of commitment in the context of the core early work of An Tairseach, she remarked:

‘… Love comes first, and then to express that love, you serve; it is out of love that you serve. And I think maybe some people are brilliant lecturers, some have been brilliant teachers and writers. And others may be just, you know, ordinary folk. But I think once you have the basis of love, the love comes through. And really, it’s love that reaches people.’

After qualifying as a teacher Helen Mary taught for a time at Muckross Park College in Donnybrook, before taking a teaching position in a grade school called St Leo the Great in New Orleans; where after her first year she was appointed principal.  While in the States, she also became Vicar of the Region of Louisiana for the Dominican Order, and was consistently in tune with the experiences of other women in similar roles, particularly through the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. She returned to Ireland in 1992 with a strong sense of the natural link between a progressive religious viewpoint and the areas of environmental advocacy and education. A ‘bigger picture’, she later recalled, was available to her through her international experience:

‘… I would have heard about ecology, and I would have heard of the awakening associated with the idea that we need justice for the earth. I would have heard of that through LCWR, and through the bigger picture provided by the women religious in the States.’

Helen Mary later travelled extensively to Australia, Lisbon, Brazil, and South Africa. This international perspective, together with her recognition of the talent and dedication of the first members of the An Tairseach community, and her own renowned skill in the spheres of governance and administration, in addition to her considerable gifts as a communicator and a teacher, made her a popular and dynamic presence in An Tairseach, where her work continues to resonate.

You can listen here to a clip of Helen Mary speaking, in which she acknowledges that her role has been one of ‘a mover’, working sometimes deliberately in the background, and urging An Tairseach onward.

Music by Alannah Thornburgh