Archive (186 life histories found)

The Kiltegan presence in Kenya expanded rapidly during the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1963 there were about 40 Kiltegan priests in the Diocese of Eldoret at any one time. They were all Irish. At that time the diocese stretched from Lake Turkana…

On day three Fr. Fintan arrived and brought me to the minor seminary at Matunda Catholic Mission, a couple of miles from Hoey's Bridge and 15 miles from Kitale. This area is part of the Eldoret Plateau, then known as the White Highlands. At roughly…

By the end of July 1963 I was beginning to get restless. Maynooth was now history and there was no future for me in Clondaliever. It was a great time to be young and free. Sean Lemass was leading Ireland away from a dull and conservative past into a…

Religion was taken seriously in our house. This was not exceptional. At that time the vast majority of people in Ireland attended mass every Sunday and said the rosary every night. While my father was happy on a diet of Sunday mass, the rosary every…

Following the hurling success that I had experienced with Johnstown school, it was a natural progression for me to join Clonkill hurling club. The club had no playing field of its own. It reached agreement with my father that the players could use…

I was one of the lucky few to progress from Johnstown primary school to secondary school. It was only after free secondary education was introduced in the mid - 1960s that secondary schooling became an option for a majority of primary school leavers…

Before I became a teenager I was always pining to grow up quickly and to do the grown up things. I wanted to dress up lime my older sister with saries and long dresses with high heel shoes and jewelleries and wanted to accompany her wherever she was…

I went to a big Girls' High School surrounded by a big high wall. I used to go to school in a school bus where there was a lady attendant who looked after us that we were comfortable and not any fight.I was an above average student and working hard…

A photo of Mary Dynan with her secondary school friends. Mary is first on the left of the second row.

A picture of Mary Dynan in her St. Louis school uniform with her friend.