Hannah’s Friendship Bench (Hannah Foley)

Mar 26, 2021

Hannah’s Friendship Bench

Hannah Foley was a beloved member of our school community here at Scoil Bhríde for almost thirty years, before her sad and untimely death in May 2010.

 Hannah loved teaching and took great pride in her work. In many ways, Hannah was ahead of her time. She introduced the children to IT, programming, robotics and coding. She loved local history and collected historical data and records relating to the history of Kill village, which we still use to this day.

Many past pupils still recall Hannah’s kindness and generosity. She often took her class for a stroll to the shop for ice cream on a Summer’s day. She would attend every school event with a camera around her neck taking beautiful pictures of the children.

Hannah concerned herself especially with children who were struggling in some way. She went above and beyond for them. Many children will recall words of comfort or little acts of kindness shown by Hannah.

We, her colleagues and friends, regarded her with the highest esteem and the deepest affection. We miss her infectious laugh, her huge personality and her love of life. She was the wisest of teachers and the truest of friends.

The staff of Scoil Bhríde felt the loss of Hannah greatly and wanted something special on school grounds to remember her by. We chose the ‘Friendship Bench’ in her honour as we felt it best represented our memories of Hannah. Her smiling face, her inquisitive mind, her helpful and warm disposition and of course her infectious laugh. We hope that the children who share Hannah’s bench on the yard, will share these qualities with each other and Hannah’s legacy in Scoil Bhride lives on. She is greatly missed by staff and the wider community of Kill (of which she was so proud) and very well remembered by all who knew her.

Staff and friends of Scoil Bhríde, Kill including Eileen Kealey, Carmel Linehan and Rachel Tuohy.