When golfers gather at Ridge Country Club for the Mercy Circle Irish Classic, the day will end with a moment unlike any other outing.
Five lucky participants will walk to the 18th tee, accompanied by the skirl of bagpipes, for their chance at a hole-in-one and a trip to Ireland.
On Monday, Sept. 22, Mercy Circle will sponsor its first Irish Classic golf tournament at Ridge Country Club, 10522 S. California Ave. The daylong event “aims to become a South Side tradition,” in the words of Mercy Circle Director of Development Tom Ramsden.
Part of the day will include the special hole-in-one opportunity to win a golf trip for four to top golf courses in Southwest Ireland.
“Five randomly selected golfers will each get to take one swing on the 18th green,” Ramsden said. “It’s about 165 yards — which can be watched from the clubhouse.”
Leading the golfers to the tee box will be Kate Longid, a 1996 Mother McAuley graduate and Shannon Rovers Irish Pipe Band member whose life has been defined by music, with Mother McAuley playing a unique role in her journey.
Longid grew up in Oak Lawn, where Irish music was a part of her daily life playing the tin whistle at a young age.
“It seemed like something I always just figured I would do,” she said. “I always loved the bagpipes, and it was a matter of time of just waiting for when I would physically be large enough to play them.”
Her father plays pipes, and by age 9, she was performing at Irish sessions and competitions. Throughout high school, she would often perform during the weekends.
At Mother McAuley, Longid had little outlet for her Celtic music, but that didn’t stop her guidance counselor, Sr. Kathleen Moriarty RSM, from helping her pursue her passion.
One fall morning during her senior year, Longid was pulled out of class by Moriarty. “She said, did you go to college night last night? And, I said no,” Longid said. “She said, ‘Big mistake.”
As it turned out, representatives from Monmouth College had been the last ones packing up. While on their way out, they asked Moriarty if she knew a bagpiper — luckily she did.
“All within a week and a half of Sr. Kate pulling me out of class,” Longid said, “Ihad a full tuition scholarship to Monmouth College to teach and perform bagpipes.”
At Monmouth, she helped form and lead the school’s pipe band, which became the college’s marching band.
The opportunity, Longid said, shaped not only her education but the course of her life. “It was a huge deal financially as one of four kids in my family,” she said. “Music has always been a really big part of my life, and Monmouth helped keep that going.”
Moriarty died in August 2017 at age 81, but her legacy lives on at Mercy Circle thanks to fellow residents and nuns like Sr. Cathleen Cahill RSM. Cahill served as curriculum director and then principal of Mother McAuley from 1978 to 1987, seeing firsthand the impact Moriarty had on students.
“She was a very dedicated woman,” Cahill said. “She followed up on students and looked out for them. I think they knew she was always for their best interest.”
Moriarty’s dedication is exemplified in Longid’s story. For Longid, the scholarship with Monmouth remains a reminder of how one counselor’s attention altered her life.
“In retrospect,” Longid said, “it is pretty remarkable that she was able to think in that second: yes, I have someone for you.”
For Mercy Circle, the Irish Classic is more than a fundraiser; it’s a way to sustain a mission that began with Catherine McAuley nearly 200 years ago on Baggot Street in Dublin, Ireland.
Proceeds from this year’s Irish Classic will go toward Mercy Circle’s Baggot Street memory-care unit, which gets its name from the address of the first House of Mercy, established in 1824 in Dublin.
According to Ramsden, the memory-care unit has quickly become a vital part of the Mercy Circle campus, providing specialized care for residents.
“This year’s outing is going to predominantly focus on assisting with costs for Baggot Street,” he said. “We have quite a waiting list for that facility because our staff is so good.”
Ramsden hopes to raise some $50,000 from this year’s golf outing with some 90 to 100 golfers expected to attend. Non-golfers also are invited to purchase tickets to attend the post-tourney dinner.
Mercy Circle is a not-for-profit senior living community with a no-entrance-fee policy. Sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, it is the only faith-based retirement community in the Southwest sector of Chicago.
Ramsden said that having the golf outing support Baggot Street represents both a practical service and a living connection to Mercy Circle’s Irish roots.
“Baggot Street is a concrete way that we can say Catherine McAuley’s mission is continuing,” Ramsden said. “The whole facility is a continuation of that mission, but having Baggot Street there, when we talk about going there, it’s amazing to know that we have that.”
Registration for the Irish Classic will open at 11 a.m. on Sept. 22, followed by lunch and then a shotgun start at 1 p.m. Cocktails and dinner will begin at 5 p.m.
For more information call (773) 253-3600 or visit mercycircle.org.
Jim Lynch | Editor l September 9, 2025