President Michael D. Higgins congratulates One Family

We are so appreciative and thankful for all the good wishes which we’ve been getting for our 40th – many thanks. We thought we’d share the message of support sent to us by President Michael D. Higgins which was read out on the night of our celebrations:

I would like to send my best wishes to Cherish as you celebrate your 40th anniversary. For many years single mothers in our society were an excluded group, a people without a voice. I thank you for all you have done in promoting an inclusive citizenship by ensuring that lone parents and their children are treated with respect and are valued as a family within our society. Your contribution to changing the landscape for lone parents in this county has been a significant one. I congratulate you for your dedication and commitment and I wish you every success in the future.
Michael D. Higgins
Uachtarán na hÉireann
President of Ireland
You can also read the message from our founder Maura Richards O’Dea here

To celebrate our 40th, we’ve been collected experiences from some of our clients over the years. These stories form a precious and informative archive – thanks so much to Christine, Kiva and Melissa for adding to those stories.

More clients share their One Family stories, read them here…

 Thanks to more clients – Louise, Tracey and Maria – for sharing their experiences of One Family and of parenting alone or sharing parenting – we will be posting more of these stories over the coming weeks, all to mark our 40th anniversary.

 

Listen to memories from One Family Founders

Listen to the memories of One Family Founders

Some of the One Family/ Cherish founder members have been kind enough to take the time to share their memories from the early days with us – listen to Evelyn Forde, Annette Hunter-Evans, Margaret Murphy and Nuala Feric.  We will shortly be sharing the full interviews with these courageous women who founded Cherish back in 1972. Listen here – SoundBites

Read about more Family Stories

Thanks to Cathryn and Cecelia for sharing their stories of parenting alone and their experience of One Family. See more client stories here