The junction of Mercer Street and York Street in Dublin is to be renamed Cusack Corner after Sister Mary Ann Cusack, the Nun of Kenmare, the founder of the Famine Relief Fund, who was born in York Street.
The request to honour the nun was made by Mr Sean Donovan of the Cusack Society and the Royal College of Surgeons which is to put up a bust of the nun.
Sister Cusack was born in May 1829. Aged 13 she emigrated to England and when her fiance died she joined an Anglican order and then converted to Catholicism. In 1861 she became the co-founder of the Convent of the Poor are Sisters of the Holy Cross in Kenmare and she remained there until 1881.
She founded the Famine Relief Fund which made her world famous. In 1884, she began the Order of St Joseph of Peace in a stable in Knock.