Friday October 24th brought together members of three generations of the extended Dwyer Families and the Cork Poor Clare Community along with Bishop Fintan Gavin
The occasion was to celebrate the centenary of the death of Walter Dwyer September 2nd 1925 – 2025, founding benefactor of the Cork Poor Clare Monastery in 1914.
Walter Dwyer is especially remembered for funding the building of the Monastery. Together with the Servant of God Fr. Willie Doyle SJ and with the permission of the Bishop of Cork at the time, Most Rev. Bishop Callaghan, Walter facilitated the arrival of his daughter Sr. Maria Dwyer and some Carlow Poor Clares in the Cork Monastery. Eleven years later, his death occurred on September 2nd 1925 in the Bon Secours Hospital next door and his body reposed in the Poor Clare Chapel overnight. Forty years later, on the same day, in 1965, his beloved daughter Sr. Maria died.
The Poor Clare Sisters, Cork with Bishop Fintan Gavin
Descendants of Walter Dwyer and relatives of Sr. Maria with hand-scripted scroll of the Dwyer family tree
Vocations flourished in the intervening years. This led to two new foundations being made from Cork to Glasgow and Ennis in the 1950s – and from Ennis to Papua New Guinea in 1971.
The celebration on Friday was a joyous and memorable occasion for the descendants of Walter Dwyer and relatives of Sr. Maria – the extended Dwyer family and for the Poor Clare Community. They all share the same story, the same spiritual family tree. It was a time of sharing memories and remembering how the Poor Clares came to Cork – and in remembering, it was a time for giving thanks to God for Walter Dwyer’s remarkable legacy and for all involved in the Poor Clares’ 1914 coming to Cork and continuing to this day. A magnificent hand scripted scroll of the extended Dwyer family tree can be seen in the photograph above.
