Family and friends of Jane Whelan gather to mark her retirement

Family, friends and colleagues gathered in the Grand Hotel on Friday, October 30, to pay tribute to Jane Whelan who has retired after 30 years serving the people of Moate and the surrounding districts' as public health nurse. Jane's association with Moate started when she followed the family tradition and arrived from her native Edgeworthstown to spend her secondary school days as a boarder in the Convent of Mercy. All five of the Tuite sisters spent their secondary school years boarding in Moate. After leaving school Jane trained at the Mater Hospital where she did her general nursing before spending a year in the Coombe doing her midwifery training. Canada then beckoned and a year in general nursing in Toronto was followed by a year working with children with special needs in Calgary. Jane returned to Ireland where she spent two years working in Mullingar Hospital before undertaking her Public Health Course in Galway in 1978. Graduating in June 1979 it was coincidental that the next available public health nursing vacancy was in Moate, where Jane remained for the rest of her career with the public health service. A lady with a warm and friendly disposition Jane has been welcomed into many homes over the years where her cheery disposition, reassuring professionalism and lovely manner has benefitted the community which she has served with great dedication over her 30 years working in Moate. It was in Moate that Jane met her husband Joe, a former boarder in the Carmelite College who was teaching in the town at that time. They are the proud parents of Sara Jane, Declan and Margaret and mentors to their great friend John. Since her official retirement which took place on July 31 Jane, the fourth in a family of eight, has enjoyed the opportunity to spend more time with her father Pearse, who is now 89 years old and still living in Edgworthstown where he has lived on his own since the death of Jane's mother Jenny, who passed away ten years ago. The advice of a friend when she retired was not to commit to anything for at least six months but already the days are filling up with more time to spend with her family, her garden and the daily cycles that have become part of the routine. Tennis was always a big part of life growing up in Edgeworthstown with every spare minute spent on the courts during teenage years. Painting is another hobby that may also be revisited in the New Year. As she embarks on the next phase in her already very active life we wish Jane and her family many more years of good health and fulfilment.