One of the women who, as a young girl, was at the centre of the 1957 Fethard-on-Sea boycott of Protestant businesses has died. She will be buried in a ceremony involving two churches in Co Wexford today and tomorrow.
Mrs Mary Dunne (nee Cloney) was one of the two daughters of Mr Sean Cloney, a Catholic married to a Protestant woman, who defied the local parish priest about the education of his children.
When Mrs Dunne was a small girl the local parish priest told her mother that she and her sister Eileen would have to attend the local Catholic school. Mrs Cloney left Wexford for a time and went to Northern Ireland where she was associated for a time with followers of the Rev Ian Paisley.
The dispute subsequently spread in the community around Fethard-on-Sea. An organised boycott of Protestant businesses by Catholics in the town took place, and continued for the best part of a year. Eventually, the family was reunited and the boycott was dropped. The Cloneys educated their children at home rather than give victory to one side or the other by sending them to either of the local denominational schools.
Mrs Dunne's body was removed from St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin yesterday evening to Ryan's funeral parlour in Wellington Bridge. This evening it will be taken to the Catholic church at Poulfur, near the Cloney home at Fethard-on-Sea for a removal service.
Tomorrow she will be taken from Poulfur church to St Mogue's Church of Ireland church in Fethard-on-Sea for a funeral service at 2.30 p.m. She will be buried in the adjoining cemetery.
Mrs Dunne is survived by her parents, her sisters, Eileen and Hazel, her husband, Mr Michael Dunne, and two teenage children.