Passing of a Templemore icon
The death occurred on November 5 last of Phyllis O’Toole (née Quinlan), Park Road, Templemore.
Born in Church Street in 1927, she later lived in McDonagh Terrace and attended the local girls national school across the road on Hospital Street where the McAuley Centre now stands.
The effects of the Second World War were felt far and wide and the 10th Battalion arrived in McCan Barracks, Templemore, in 1940. Joe O’Toole from Drinagh, Swords, Co Dublin arrived in the Barracks in the mid 1940s. He found love in Templemore when he met Phyllis and they were married in the Sacred Heart Church on June 5, 1946.
A woman of great faith, Phyllis was a very gentle, caring, and loving mother and was ideally suited to home life and rearing her 14 children. She was also generous with her time for others. Phyllis prepared home dinners for the needy and she was an active member of the Legion of Mary, which included a trip to Scotland and other cities to carry out missionary work for the Legion.
She was an active member in the ICA and was involved in a secretarial capacity during the start-up of the Templemore Credit Union. She served in a similar role with her husband Joe in the establishment of the ITGWU in Templemore. Travel was another passion of Phyllis's and along with Joe they visited Lourdes and Rome on numerous pilgrimages including the Holy Year in 1975 for the opening of the Holy Door by Pope Paul VI. This was a rare occasion as the event only takes place every 25 years.
They also travelled to the missions in Lagos, Nigeria, to visit their daughter Sr Mary, who worked for the missions there with the daughters of Charity.
PRIESTS AT THE DINNER TABLE
Phyllis’s home was an open door to the ‘Young Priests Society’ for several years and on Sundays you would regularly find young deacons from St Patrick’s College, Thurles, at the dinner table in her home, many of whom served in Tipperary parishes and beyond.
Phyllis is revered by priests today in parishes far and wide. Phyllis was also a motivator in the setting up of the altar to Our Lady in Park View. Her devotion to the rosary was saintly as she always advocated that the "family that prays together will stay together”.
Every time she entered the Sacred Heart Church she would stop at the door and say - “Jesus, Jesus, this is Phyllis, I am here to pay you a visit so that when they carry me in you will not ask who it is”.
She loved her walks in the Town Park and liked to stop and chat to all her friends. In her later years she was well cared for by her devoted family and the staff at Templemore Day Care Centre, the Home Instead team and Health Board carers, and more recently by the staff at Mount Carmel nursing home in Roscrea.
Rearing families of 14 is certainly a thing of the past and it takes a very special mother to nurture them all through to adulthood. Phyllis O’Toole was up there with the best of them. She was an icon to all her family, neighbours, and friends.
Large crowds attended her funeral to celebrate her amazing life. She was laid to rest beside her beloved Joe and her recently deceased son Laurence. Her life was dedicated to honesty, integrity and gratitude. May her gentle caring soul rest in eternal peace.