ABOUT 300 mourners turned out yesterday for the funeral of Eileen Roche, née Flynn, whose dismissal from her post in the 1980s became a watershed in relations between church and state in Ireland.
Mrs Roche died at the age of 53 following a long illness. In August 1982 she was dismissed from her job as an English and history teacher at the Holy Faith Convent in New Ross, Co Wexford, because she was unmarried with a baby son and was living with the baby’s father, a separated man, Richie Roche.
She took the school to court and lost, but her cause was adopted by those who were looking for a more secularised Ireland.
Mr Roche and the couple’s five children, Regina, Rebecca, Patrick, Richard and Diarmuid, together with their three grandchildren, were the chief mourners at yesterday’s funeral service at Rosbercon Church, New Ross, Co Wexford.
Also present were Mrs Roche’s brothers, Seán and Ray Flynn, and their children.
In his sermon, parish priest Fr Dan Cavanagh did not refer to the 1980s controversy, but said Mrs Roche had a passion for teaching and had spent the last eight years of her life teaching at New Ross CBS.
“Her death is a very severe blow to the school. She understood children and was devoted to them and they loved her,” he said.
He described her as a “woman of spirit; intelligent and articulate” who loved crosswords, traditional music and all things Irish.
