Photo: Mary Halligan and Judge George Birmingham who unveiled a plaque dedicated to the founder of Children's Group Link.
The founder of a Waterford charity says the organisation has seen both joy and sadness throughout its history.
Children's Group Link celebrated its 40th anniversary yesterday. It held a gala event for members, past members and others who have been involved over the years. held to mark occasion.
She set it up to help marginalised young people and to get them through life and told the crowd yesterday that it's been an emotional four decades: "It's been a journey of challenges, sadness, great friendships that will last forever, - there's no doubt about that. But it was great to see so many come together and just continue that journey in many difficult circumstances."
She was hailed by Amnesty Ireland director Colm O'Gorman for her compassion and humanity. Judge George Birmingham, President of the Court of Appeal, meanwhile helped unveil a plaque dedicated to Mary Halligan.
The charity's premises on Military Road in the city has been renamed The Mary Halligan Child, Teenage and Community Centre in her honour.
She said the defining reason behind the group's existence was because children are not born into "an equal playing field".
"That is why Children's Group Link is here today," she added. "That is why we started. We give them support whenever they need it, and certainly they say everyone is born equal but we're not. It's not an equal playing field. Some children have it harder than others.
"We have to look out for our young people. We have to provide he services no matter small it is. We may not like what they do, and I know some of their actions at times may be questionable, and we may not like the company that they keep - but we must love them unconditionally."
The charity's chief executive Brendan Halligan said they're a unique organisation: "We're the single largest independent youth organisation in the country. We're very big in so far as that we cater for children, teenagers, right across the city. We're not just located in a specific geographic area, although physically we're up in the centre of the town, we cater to quite a large area."
