Credit Union Day: Legacy of past volunteers helped to make St Canice’s what it is today

Wander through the centre of Kilkenny City and you can’t miss the home of St Canice’s Credit Union.
Just like the bricks and mortar of the headquarters, the spirit of St Canice’s Credit Union lives at the heart of the local community. It’s been a presence from its foundation, 60 years ago, and plans to maintain and nurture that relationship long into the future.

This is a significant year for St Canice’s Credit Union — 60 years since the first group of people came together to set up a ‘new’ kind of financial institution in the city. This anniversary is an opportunity for the credit union to celebrate its past but also to highlight how it has risen to the challenges of modern life, while always maintaining its community spirit.
“We have been in Kilkenny for 60 years. It’s important to mark that,” says current CEO, Carmel Butler.
While most of the original founding members of St Canice’s Credit Union have passed away, many of those who opened accounts in the very early days are still members, and their families have maintained lifelong relationships with the credit union.
“It’s important we celebrate the past and the success the credit union has become today. The founders were forward thinking people and made a significant contribution to the lives of people in Kilkenny and the surrounding areas.
“I don’t think they could have ever known how it would develop, and it’s important to mark their contribution. I hope they’re looking down and saying, ‘fair play, the place is still going from strength to strength’,” Carmel said.
The credit union movement began in the 1950s in Dublin, and in 1963 people in Kilkenny decided to come together to create one of these ‘new’ financial institutions.
St Canice’s Credit Union opened its doors to the public in January 1964 in the Boys Club but shortly afterwards moved to the adjacent premises known to locals as the St Vincent de Paul shop in the Butts Green neighbourhood of the city.
The Kilkenny of the 1960s was a different place to today. Emigration was a major issue with many feeling significant financial burden, the need for access to finance for ordinary working people was huge.
Without St Canice’s Credit Union, many in Kilkenny would have had a much more difficult time educating their families, buying cars, owning houses and more, Carmel says.
In the 60 years since, St Canice’s has become a great success story and is now the largest community credit union in Ireland with assets in excess of €500 million.
Hundreds of volunteers have given their time over those years to make the institution what it is today.
The first President of St Canice’s Credit Union was the late Patrick Cantwell, while the first treasurer, the late Gus Murray went on to play an important role in the Credit Union movement, later becoming the first Irish President of the World Council of Credit Unions.
Carmel is more than aware of the legacy of all those volunteers and staff that made St Canice’s what it is today.
“There were so many volunteers, so many directors who sat on the board through the years, especially in the early days, that even came in to cover the counter for holidays,” she says.
“We really appreciate every one of them. We would not be where we are today without all the volunteers over that time,” Carmel said.
“Even today, although they are not involved in the day to day service at the counter, our volunteers give so much of their time to attending board meetings and looking after the governance of the credit union.
“They give their time because they believe in what we do in the community, and they make us stronger.”
The first manager of St Canice’s Credit Union was Paddy Kennedy, with Paddy Fry working alongside him before succeeding him in the 1990s. The two men became synonymous with St Canice’s and legend is, there was never a pantomime in which their names didn’t feature - a real community honour!
Clare Lawton became just the third manager in 1998, holding the role for over 20 years and overseeing a number of mergers with neighbouring credit unions which helped St Canice’s grow to achieve its current size and scale. Carmel Butler assumed the manager role in 2020 and has led the credit union through an unprecedented period of change and growth. From maintaining services throughout the pandemic to developing a successful mortgage product and introducing modern digital services, a new app and Centres of Excellence, the credit union has constantly adapted and developed in recent years.
In the last six decades St Canice’s members have seen the assets grow in the credit union from £1,732 in 1964 to over €500 million today.
In the past five years, St Canice’s Credit Union has granted over 200 mortgages at affordable rates, throughout Kilkenny, Carlow and Laois. “It’s great we can do things like that, directly improving people’s lives” Carmel said.
At the other end of the scale, the credit union still gives smaller loans, for Christmas and special occasions. In fact, over 110 loans were issued in September 2024 for values less than €1,000 showing the credit union can help with both the big and small events in members’ lives.
Now, in 2024, the credit union wants to honour its past and, at the same time, secure its future. Among the projects the credit union has undertaken in this special year is the Community Connect Awards. More than 20 local clubs and societies shared grants of €130,000 for capital projects being undertaken this year.
“We felt it was a really good way of supporting the work going on in a myriad of groups across a wide range of areas,” Carmel said. Helping groups where people spend their time volunteering in the community shows how St Canice’s Credit Union is still focused on its original ethos of being there for the community.
In an event tinged with sadness, the credit union community also held an event in honour of their late colleague Roisín Gilroy. “She was passionate about the credit union and we wanted to create an event, something she would have liked,” said Carmel. A fundraising concert held in Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre in August in her memory raised €45,000 for Cois Nore.
Protecting the environment for the future is also important to the credit union and its members. With this in mind, St Canice’s is taking practical steps in its own offices, as well as supporting community projects. A project is under way to install solar panels on all of the nine branch locations helping to reduce energy costs as well as the carbon footprint of the credit union. Separately, a fund of €60,000 to mark the anniversary and to help support environmental causes in the locality was established with a number of local recipients to be announced in the coming weeks.
Under this theme, St Canice’s is also running a schools competition focused on upcycling with students transforming everyday items into useful creations.
Carmel explained the credit union wants to use its position to be an advocate for the environment, social involvement and volunteerism; even in a simple way like sharing the messages of various groups on Facebook and Instagram, because St Canice’s has a huge social media following.
St Canice’s also has a focus on the education of members. For example, a lot of work has been done on fraud awareness and cyber security.
Working for an organisation that is not for profit, that provides financial resources, loans and gives back to the community is something that energises the staff, Carmel said.
“We are working in an institution we can be proud of and the staff really reflect that in the support they give us.”
The voluntary directors of the credit union are charged with governance and they are involved in all the big decisions. Carmel paid tribute to their leadership which allows St Canice’s to now provide a full suite of financial services, and to be at the forefront of bringing new services to members. The size of St Canice’s and the investments it has made allow it to offer a full range of services including a fully functional current account with debit card, overdraft and all the modern payment facilities one would expect.
And it’s those volunteers that might just be the secret to the success of St Canice’s Credit Union. For 60 years the organisation has never lost sight of its community spirit and human touch. Even today, when many organisations and businesses have automated or gone completely online, St Canice’s members value being able to walk into the office or pick up the phone. They deal with the same, professional and friendly people all the time.
“It’s incredibly important, the personal touch, even when we are putting so much into our digital services,” Carmel said. “Our members continue to know the people in here, which is wonderful.”
As St Canice’s looks forward to the next 60 years and all the successes, challenges and developments that will come, it is taking the time to mark this special anniversary and recognise the people who have made it all possible.
Having created a rich history in Kilkenny in its early days it now operates across a wider geographical area, providing a broader range of services but always keeping the core principals of the credit union movement at its heart. A modern financial institution still embedded in the community it serves, St Canice’s Credit Union can look forward to a bright future of continuing to support its members.