Our History

"Gorey Credit Union serving the people of Gorey Since 1966"

GOREY CREDIT UNION-  A Brief History

Most people nowadays are aware of the importance of Gorey Credit Union to its members.

What they may not know much about were the efforts made in the early days to get it up and running.

Nora Herlihy, one of the pioneers of the Credit Union movement in Ireland, had set up the countries first in 1958, based on a system developed in Germany in the middle of the nineteenth century, which slowly spread throughout central Europe to India, Canada and North America.

It was only a matter of time before somebody became sufficiently interested in the new movement in the town of Gorey and that “somebody” was the late Bob Kinsella of Market Square- a native Gorey man and reporter for the local paper.

When sufficient interest had been determined, he arranged an informal meeting which was set up in the Railway hotel on 21^st March 1966.  In attendance that night were three members of the newly formed Credit Unions in Wexford and Enniscorthy, along with a Field Officer from the League of Credit Unions.

The seven Gorey residence to attend that evening were Bob Kinsella, Peter O’Loughlin, Michael Leacy, Joe Sheehan, Tony Woulfe, Willie Kinsella and Dermot Malone and it was this band of initial volunteers that set the wheels in motion to establish a Credit Union in the town of Gorey.

Other people became interested as they proceeded and when the number reached sixteen, they became the steering committee and later the first Board of Directors.  The additional personnel were Margaret Graham, Sean Dwyer, Michael Devereux, Stan Hempenstall, Sean Donelan, Jim Sheehan, Tom Kirwan, Dr. P. O’Gorman, Mattie Lacey and Paddy Doyle.

Willie Kinsella became the first Secretary and Tom Kirwan was appointed Treasurer, a post he held until becoming full time Manager in 1983, a position from which he retired in 1997.

The town of Gorey owes a huge debt of gratitude to these far sighted individuals who could see the benefits that a Credit Union would hold for their town and its occupants, so much so that a new purpose built premises was opened on Wednesday 09^th January 2008, to cater for the ever expanding membership of one of the best institutions in the town of Gorey.