 Involved in the planning of the Mater Hospital in Dublin, Whitty was especially skilled in organisation and as such was considered invaluable to the Sisters of Mercy community in Ireland.Additionally, she founded five new convents and established three institutions in Dublin for the care of underprivileged women and children.It was this that held Whitty in Ireland until Bishop James Quinn, who had recently been named as the first Bishop of Brisbane for Queensland, encouraged her to come to his pioneer diocese.