Michael at the 60^th anniversary of St. Mary’s Navan Credit Union with long term employees Michèle Keelan, Helen Kearns and Laura Rogers.

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of our first General Manager and founding member Michael F. Woods.

Michael, with a committee of local volunteers, founded the Credit Union in March 1963 to serve the people of Navan and surrounding areas at a time when the national banks of the day had little interest in providing services to ordinary working people.

He went on to lead the organisation for over 35 years.

In those early days operating part-time from the Navan Foresters Hall with a paper ledger, no one could have imagined the evolution, modernisation and indeed the transformation the Credit Union would achieve under his leadership. Although, speaking to those who worked with him for many years, maybe Michael could indeed already see it, in his mind’s eye.

Michael was always incredibly intelligent and his mind remained sharp as a pin throughout his retirement. Always far ahead of his time, at the Credit Unions 60^th anniversary celebrations in the summer of 2023, he recalled how he had lead the introduction of credit scoring through their new IT system in the mid-1990s, which was based on a members good record with the Credit Union and could speed up loan decisions for members.

Many families will tell you, without the Credit Union, they would never have been able to buy a car to get to work, put their children through college or help them get started as an apprentice, indeed many a Christmas dinner and new washing machine was paid for with a small loan from the Credit Union during leaner years.