Swing out Sister – Galway’s history-making golfing nun

Whatever about a hole in one, there’s certainly a holy nun on the fairways of Tuam this year – and she’s a Sister making history as the first nun to hold the office of President of a Golf Club in the country . . . if not the world.

What’s more, Sr Agnes Curley is still as competitive as ever and has represented her club in two All-Ireland golf finals.

While a lot of priests play golf, the same cannot be said of nuns – but St Agnes is looking forward to the challenge ahead and wants to bring back the social aspect of the game.

When she joined the nuns in the early sixties, the world of golf was alien. But when she was a staff member of Clifden Community School in the mid-seventies, there was a staff outing once a year to Connemara Golf Club in Ballyconneely.

“There were three nuns on the staff but we hadn’t a clue how to play golf but I was fascinated by the game and still am. I just thoroughly enjoy it every time I play,” Sr Agnes told The Connacht Tribune.

She moved to the Mercy Convent in Tuam in 1994 and immediately joined the local golf club where she received lessons from the then professional, the late Larry Smyth who had organised beginners’ lessons.

Sr Agnes won a beginners competition and her brother TJ, a priest in Mississippi who played off single figures at the time, sent her a brand new set of clubs as a reward for her achievement.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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