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In Fermoy, Ireland |
Bishop Timothy MurphyPre 1800-1856
Statue of Bishop Timothy Murphy At this time Fr. Timothy Murphy a native of Coachford, Co. Cork, was a curate in the parish of Fermoy and served for over thirty years in the various capacities of curate, parish priest and bishop of the diocese of Cloyne. This was the man more than any other who was responsible for establishing St.Colman’s College, Fermoy.  St Colman's College, Fermoy Having laid the solid foundation of a primary education system in the parish by setting up a number of National Schools, Fr. Murphy introduced the Presentation Nuns to Fermoy in 1838 and the Loretto Sisters in 1853. After much After much toil and thought he had the happiness of seeing the Presentation Convent completed, and on the 13th.November 1838, at the invitation of Most Rev. Dr. Crotty, Bishop of Cloyne, three nuns came from South Presentation, Douglas Street, Cork. and took possession of the newly built Convent.
 Loretto Convent, Fermoy In 1856 he bought a potato garden from Robert Briscoe, a protestant, and later work began on this site with a view to the erection of the new college. In December of the same year Fr. Timothy Murphy died. Some days previously he had been taken in a stretcher to observe the progress of the building.
 Presentation School, Fermoy Fr. Timothy Murphy, who did so much for the spiritual life of the people of Fermoy, and whose statue in front of the Bishop Murphy Memorial School today was successively Curate (from 1826), Parish Priest (from 1841), and Bishop of Cloyne and Ross still residing in Fermoy (from 1849). He had been to the Sisters not only their Superior, their counsellor, their sincere friend, but above all their loving father. Bishop Murphy was privileged to assist at the Proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception on the 8th.December 1854 in Rome, but suffered much from the journey to and fro by sea. He returned home, his health evidently much impaired.  Lodge to Presentation School, Fermoy His death in 1856 was a sore trial for the nuns. Attached to them in life, he would not be separated from them in death, and after bequeathing to them his house and whatever else he possessed he willed that his mortal remains should rest within their Convent Chapel, there to await the Resurrection.
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