5 Pounds 1998, Ireland
| in Banknotes Book | Number: E154 |
| Years of issue: | 19.08.1998 |
| Edition: | -- |
| Signatures: | Governor: Mr. Muiris S. O'Conaill, Secretary of the Department of Finance: Mr. P. H. Mullarkey |
| Serie: | Serie С 1992 - 2002 |
| Specimen of: | 15.03.1994 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 120 х 64 |
| Printer: | Central Bank of Ireland Printworks, Central Bank Currency Centre, Dublin |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Lady Hazel Lavery (second wife of the famous painter Sir John Lavery).
She is a personification of Ireland on Irish banknotes Serie A.
Denomination in numeral 5.
Avers:
The engraving on banknote is made after this portrait of Mother Catherine Elizabeth McAuley.
The Venerable Mother Catherine Elizabeth McAuley (29 September 1778 - 11 November 1841) was an Irish nun, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831. The Order has always been associated with teaching, especially in Ireland, where the nuns taught Catholics (and at times Protestants) at a time when education was mainly reserved for members of the established Church of Ireland.
McAuley inherited a considerable fortune and chose to use it to build a house where she and other compassionate women could take in homeless women and children to provide care and an education for them. A location was selected at the junction of lower Baggot and Herbert Streets, Dublin, and in June 1824, the corner-stone was laid by the Rev. Dr. Blake. On the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, 24 September 1827, the new institution for destitute women, orphans, and schools for the poor was opened and McAuley, with two companions, undertook its management.
Catherine McAuley never intended to found a community of religious women. Her initial intention was to assemble a lay corps of Catholic social workers. In 1828 the archbishop permitted the staff of the institute to assume a distinctive dress and to publicly visit the sick. The uniform adopted was a black dress and cape of the same material reaching to the belt, a white collar and a lace cap and veil - such a costume as is now worn by the postulants of the congregation. In the same year the archbishop desired Miss McAuley to choose some name by which the little community might be known, and she chose that of "Sisters of Mercy", having the design of making the works of mercy the distinctive feature of the institute.
She was desirous that the members should combine with the silence and prayer of the Carmelites, the active labours of a Sister of Charity. The position of the institute was anomalous, its members were not bound by vows nor were they restrained by rules. The church (clergy and people) of the time, however, were not supportive of groups of lay women working independently of church structures. Catherine's clerical mentor urged her to form a religious institute. Catherine and two other women entered the formation program of the Presentation Sisters to formally prepare for life as women religious. At the end of one year they professed vows and returned to the House of Mercy. The Sisters of Mercy consider 12 December 1831 as the day of their founding as a religious community.
A cholera epidemic hit Dublin in 1832, and Catherine agreed to staff a cholera hospital on Townsend Street.
The rule of the Sisters of Mercy was formally confirmed by Pope Gregory XVI on 6 June 1841. Catherine lived only ten years as a Sister of Mercy, Sister Mary Catherine, but in that time she established twelve foundations in Ireland and two in England. At the time of her death there were 150 Sisters of Mercy. Shortly thereafter, small groups of sisters left Ireland to establish new foundations on the east and west coasts of the United States, in Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina.
Total worldwide vowed membership is about 10,000. The Mercy International Centre in Dublin, Ireland is the international "home" of the Sisters of Mercy worldwide.
In 1978, the cause for the beatification of the Servant of God Catherine McAuley was opened by Pope Paul VI. In 1990, upon recognition of her heroic virtues, Pope John Paul II declared her Venerable. This placed her on the path towards possible sainthood. 
On left side and lower, in the center, is The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (commonly known as the Mater or MMUH (Irish: Ospidéal an Mater Misercordiae)) is a major teaching hospital, based at Eccles Street, Phibsboro, on the north side of Dublin, Ireland. "Mater misericordiae" means "Mother of Mercy", in Latin, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the Catholic hymn Salve Regina and alludes to its founders, the Sisters of Mercy.
The hospital stands next to the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, and has provided public hospital care to adult patients for more than 150 years. It was established by the Sisters of Mercy as a Roman Catholic voluntary hospital within the health system of Ireland.
It is associated with the National University of Ireland (University College Dublin School of Medicine) and provides national tertiary care in many branches of medicine.
The first endoscope was used in the Mater. The hospital is mentioned by Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's Ulysses.
The Mater Hospital is a tertiary referral centre for cardiothoracic surgery as well as housing the National Spinal injuries unit. It also houses the national heart and lung transplant programme. The National Pulmonary Hypertension Unit is also the leading centre in this area in Ireland. It also is a major centre for cardiology offering the only 24-hour, 365-days-per-year interventional cardiology service in the country. It is also expected to be the first public hospital in Ireland to offer percutaneous heart valve replacement in the coming weeks. It offers regional dermatology and ophthalmology service. As well as nephrology, neurology, respiratory medicine, endocrinology and diabetology, GI medicine and hepatology and infectious diseases, which contains a new multimillion-euro negative-pressure ventilation ward to house the National Bio-Terrorism Unit.
The Irish government decided to locate a new €800 million children's hospital complex on the site of the Mater; this decision was later retracted, with St. James's Hospital being named the new proposed site.
Denomination in numeral is in top right corner. Centered in words.
Revers:
Three students in the school.
The first version of the Irish poem "Mise Raifteiri an File" of Anthony Raftery (Antoine O Raifteiri) written on the blackboard on the Gaelic language.
Antoine Ó Raifteirí (also Antoine Ó Reachtabhra, Anthony Raftery) (1779-1835) was an Irish language poet who is often called the last of the wandering bards.
Behind the students, on the wall, is the map of Europe.
Denomination in numeral and in words is in lower right corner.
Comments:
Designer: Robert Ballagh.
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