Stanislaus Kennedy (born Treasa Kennedy; 19 June 1939 – 3 November 2025), popularly known as Sister Stan, was an Irish nun, social activist and member of the Irish Council of State. She authored several books including an autobiography. Her honours included multiple honorific doctorates.
Kennedy joined the Religious Sisters of Charity at age 18 and was mentored by Bishop Peter Birch who believed that the Catholic Church had to "identify more with the poor". She graduated in social science from University College Dublin. Kennedy was in 1974 the first chair of the National Committee to Combat Poverty. She became best known as the founder of the homelessness charity Focus Ireland in 1985, but also initiated The Sanctuary, a centre for meditation and spirituality in central Dublin, and the Immigrant Council of Ireland in 2001.
Life and career
Treasa Kennedy was born on 19 June 1939 near Lispole on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, She made her profession in 1963 She attended University College Dublin, graduating with a social science degree in 1980. She later completed a master's degree at the University of Manchester.
In 1983, two years after the death of Birch, bringing them not only food, shelter and money, but also personal support. expanding beyond Dublin to Cork, Limerick, Sligo, and Waterford. In 2018, in response to protests against the congregation's involvement in healthcare, she said that "The negativity is directed at nuns. Everything is thrown together, the orphanages, the Magdalene homes, the Tuam babies, Vincent's hospital – it is all thrown together and mixed up, and it is all anti-nuns."
A 2009 report revealed that two lay workers at St Joseph's residential home in Kilkenny, where Kennedy lived and worked, had abused children in the 1970s. She said that she had not heard of sexual abuse there until an investigation in 1995. In 2020, she said in a documentary, Being Stan, a Life in Focus: "I was accused of being complicit with it, in the sense that it was alleged that I knew about the abuse and did nothing about it. ... I knew nothing about the abuse, absolutely I didn't know. But, nevertheless the allegation really upset me. It questioned everything I was about. ... I had to realise what I was suffering was nothing compared to what the boys had suffered." Her 2023 book Finding Hope featured contributions from the Dalai Lama, Colum McCann and Orla Guerin and was dedicated to Charlie Bird.
Honours
McAleese appointed Kennedy to the Council of State in 1997, and she served until 2004. In 2014, she was awarded the UCD Alumni Award for Social Sciences.
Writings
- Reprints Gardening the Soul: A Spiritual Daybook Through the Seasons (2001; ; .