Over the summer, Mary Ahern, a valued member of the Portlaoise Institute team, retired after many years of service in the teaching profession.
A good Offaly woman, Mary grew up on the Tipperary-Offaly border in the townsland of Ballybrit outside Roscrea.
An only child, her parents ran Brereton’s Public House, Forge, and farmed, while Mary after her busy childhood in Ballybrit was off to Boarding School in Templemore to complete her second level education in the Convent of Mercy.
Mary commenced her working life in the internal audit function of Avonmore Kilkenny now Glanbia where she was part of the audit team travelling to various branches to ensure best practice in their Accounting.
After the passing of her father she departed Avonmore and returned to education, completing her B Comm in the then NIHE Limerick and subsequently completed a Graduate Diploma in Education for Business.
She began working for Laois VEC in 1988 and served in Portarlington and Mountmellick, Mountrath and Rathdowney, before taking up permanent residency in Portlaoise Vocational School in 1989.
Mary taught in both Second Level and in Further Education for the first part of her career but as the Further Education part of the school expanded, she specialised in working with the then Business and Secretarial courses.
She was promoted to Assistant Principal in 2002 and in her latter career was responsible for the promotion of Portlaoise Institute, building a great relationship with the Institute and its many feeder schools.
Deputy Principal of Portlaoise College, Keith McClearn, led the tributes to Mary.
He said: “Mary excelled in the classroom and will be fondly remembered fondly by students who passed through her classes.
“She was equally loved by her colleagues who worked with her over the years and benefited from her good spirts and her friendship.”
Mary can look forward to a happy retirement spending more time with her children Katie, Patsy and Joe and indulging here many interests including gardening, cooking, baking and walks with her wide circle of friends and her new dog Molly.
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