Cahir native Brother Michael is devoted to serving others in South America

It’s a long way from the fertile farmlands of South Tipperary to the dirt roads of tropical South America. This was the road chosen by Brother Michael McGrath who was born in 1934 in Reiska.
For centuries, Irish missionaries both lay and religious worked among the poor, setting up hospitals and schools in some of the world’s most underdeveloped regions.
One of these unsung heroes is Br Michael Mc Grath now in his 80s. He returned to Ireland recently when he spoke about his life’s work in South America and elsewhere. While attending Garryclogher National School, a visit from a member of the Presentation Brothers in Cork led him to attend their Secondary School there. His mother, Catherine – a woman of great faith herself - supported his decision as did his national school teacher, Mrs. O’Donnell. It was common at that time for Religious Brothers to canvas recruits in national schools. Quite a few boys availed of the opportunity to receive a free secondary education, only to lose their vocation subsequently. But Michael stayed the pace. Like him, most of the one hundred and twenty students in his year came from farming backgrounds and so he has fond memories of his time there. To determine whether the boys had a vocation or not, fifteen were selected to attend a branch of the order in Bray for a three week intensive course. Michael was one of nine students who opted to continue their studies. He returned to Mount Saint Joseph’s Novitiate in Cork where after three years, he took temporary vows before being professed in 1963.
Then began a career of service to others, starting in Enniskillen where he spent eight of the most difficult years of his life. His job was to teach boys who failed their 11+ exams. The fact that a fellow Cahir man, Percy Butler from Castle Street, Cahir, worked with him made life somewhat tolerable in spite of the problems and the political unrest at that time. During his school holidays he was not idle, he volunteered to teach in a school in London where students were sent by the courts for truancy or petty crimes. This work could not have been easy but Brother Michael built up a rapport with his students and many went on to better things.
The influence of a good school on a child cannot be overestimated. In Michael’s case, it was the stories he heard in Garryclogher School about the Incas in Peru that inspired him in 1972 to volunteer for that country. He was to spend the next thirty years of his life around Lima, the capital of Peru - fifteen of them as school principal. Michael’s earliest memories of the place are of dire poverty, dirt roads and the overbearing heat. He often longed for the cool breeze blowing from the Galtees over the green fields of Clonmore. In the school, class sizes were large with up to sixty students in each. Children came to school hungry, but did not complain because they valued education so much. Because the numbers attending were so large, the school day was divided to accommodate up to eight hundred in the morning and the same number in the afternoon. Teachers had the support of auxiliary teachers who took charge of attendance and discipline. In spite of the difficulties, fifty per cent of the students went on to University. Brother Michael recalls that there was little money available for the upkeep of the school, consequently parents carried out repairs on desks, doors and windows and painted the school during holiday time.
As time went on, Brother Michael realized that there were big problems in relation to the way parents treated their children. He became aware that they used harsh methods to discipline their children – severe beatings were commonplace. He set about rectifying this problem by establishing a school for parents of which he is very proud. It was called ‘Escuela de Padres”. These parenting schools, encouraged by UNESCO were beginning to emerge in some Latin American countries. He organized a food programme to ensure that students were fed during the school day with breakfast and dinner. The effects of these reforms on both parents and children were life changing, thanks to this inspirational man from rural Tipperary. A great source of joy to him was the rose garden he planted and maintained at the school, a reminder, perhaps, of a distant garden of his childhood.
In 2005 Michael left Peru to work in St Lucia in the West Indies, where he taught English and Mathematics. His students were St Lucian Americans who were illiterate, having dropped out of school at fifteen. By a lovely co-incidence, this school was established by a fellow Tipperary native, Brother Brannock from Ballporeen, also a member of the Presentation Order. The school was a great success and after one year students were able to read, write, subtract, and divide. “Even though the work was hard and challenging, it was very rewarding” says Brother Michael.
Now in his mid eighties when most people are enjoying the benefits of retirement, this energetic man continues his good work. He left St Lucia for San Antonio, Texas, where he has been teaching English to Mexican immigrants; his oldest student, a woman of ninety three!
This quiet spoken, modest man has given his life to the service of others and continues to do so. From his roots in Reiska to the slums of Lima, his is a life well lived. Long may he continue to do good work - Brother Michael McGrath.

Worst day of overcrowding since records began