Dublin Castle, 1964
On April 22nd, 1964, thirteen members of An Garda Siochana held a meeting in historic Dublin Castle, to discuss the possibility of forming a Garda credit union. Those present understood the benefits that such an organisation could bring to its members, and wasted no time in forming it. That very day, the first Board Of Directors was elected. Sadly, some of these pioneers are no longer with us. The members of the first board were:
| James F. Walsh |  |
Daniel P. Boyle |
| James Hayes | |
William Smaul |
| Brian A. Sheehan | |
Joseph Higgins |
| Patrick Kearney | |
Christoper Godkin |
| Noel Hynes | |
Michael Mescall |
| John Hamill | |
James Healy |
| Sean O’Connell |
This picture shows the board of directors from 1966.
We are proud to have 12 committee rooms and our main banking hall named in honour of our original Board Of Directors…
Rear (left -right): Michael O’Brien, Brian Prendergast, Paddy Reilly, Dick Stokes, Tom MacNamera, Paddy McCarthy, Michael Mescall, Tom Casey, Noel Hynes, Sean O’Connell, Hue Gallagher, Jim Healy, Paddy O’Shea Front (left -right): Brian Sheehan, Jim Hayes, Jim Walsh, William Smaul, Paddy Kearney
The ’half-crown’ club
Soon after it’s formation, St. Raphael’s was unofficially christened the ’half-crown’ club, by the wags in the Garda force of the time. This was because new members were required to lodge a minimum of a half-crown (ask your parents if you don’t know what this is!) and borrowing was only allowed for domestic items, such as fridges and cookers.
Accommodation
Our first registered office was unofficially known as the Barber’s Shop. It was a room at Dublin Castle, the use of which was kindly allowed by the Garda Authorities of the day. In 1971, we briefly occupied a room at 8, Harrington St., before finally purchasing, for the first time, an office our own in 1972. This was at 17, South Circular Rd.
Five years later, in 1977 we acquired our home at Dorset St which we had many a happy year. In June 2005 we relocated to our current building on the Naas Road which is a modern purpose built building to cater for the needs of the credit union for the future.
Membership
By the end of 1964, 119 people had joined the credit union. A far cry from the current membership, which exceeds 31,200. Thanks to the foresight and dedication of our various boards of directors over the years, we have grown to become Ireland’s largest credit union.
