Archive (1372 life histories found)
'It then became apparent that the salaries of the other two sisters were inadequate to support a third person-me! I decided to look for paid work.'
It then became apparent that the salaries of the other two sisters were inadequate to support a third person-me! I decided to look for paid work. The Franciscan mission work was not working out very well for me and I was very frustrated with wasting…
Tags: employment, teaching, training
'I realised that this boy was clever, and that he needed an education in order to break out of the poverty trap.'
While teaching the postulants in Nharira Mission, I became very friendly with them, particularly Simon Mutsenhure. Looking back I can see why I was in Zimbabwe, as part of God's plan. Simon entered the Franciscans and got as far as the novitiate with…
Tags: Education, friendship, Mission, poverty
'We left next day for Victoria Falls and were amazed at such magnificent waterfalls and scenery. It has to be seen and experienced!'
Aidan O'Kane came out to Zimbabwe to visit me. I collected him at Harare airport and we went to McCann's for our tea that evening and next day proceeded to the mission. Aidan was very impressed at how I knew my way round Harare. That was not…
Tags: landscape, Missions, scenery, travel, Victoria Falls
'The others waded through that deep water and were home and dry quite some time before I managed to make it with the car.'
The 'Kiltegans' always celebrate St Patrick's Day. After all St Patrick is their patron. They sure know how to host a party. WE had one unforgettable party in St Benedict's Mission, which was well away from civilisation in a place near Headlands. I…
'At last I believed that my mission was about to begin.'
The following April, I was asked to go to Gweru to collect the promised truck-a Nissan Hi-lux single cab. I was overjoyed. At last I believed that my mission was about to begin. Well I suppose it did in a way but it was not what I had envisaged. The…
Tags: Harare, Mercy Order, Missions
'People at home had been extremely generous to me and I had a few hundred pounds with me, and believe me, it was more than needed where I was going!'
There were few farewell parties for me and when I was ready to travel, Cecilia and Fr Ciaran Dallat accompanied me to London, where I stayed with Aidan O'Kane in Conway House (an Irish Centre Housing hostel for men in QuexRoad, Kilburn) for a couple…
Tags: Home, Mercy Order, Missions
'Because I was intending to go to foreign parts, he decided to give me a thorough examination and a scan and, lo and behold, did he not find a tumour?'
During this time of preparation for the move to Africa, Fr Pascal Slevin OFM, the 'custos' in Zimbabwe, was in frequent contact with us, because he was trying his best to speed up our visa applications. If you have ever been in the situation of…
Tags: Doctor, hysterectomy, Medicine, surgery
'I was in a bit of turmoil, as I had so much information to consider and digest between that and my return to Belfast.'
Awaiting me in Helen's Bay, was a message to telephone Sr.M. Emilian. She wanted to see me next morning in Fruithill Park, where she was now living in the Generalate, having been elected Mother General of the Down and Connor Sisters of Mercy. She…
Tags: meeting, Mercy Order, Mission, Zimbabwe
'I got my eyes opened to the real world which existed outside the world of convent and education.'
I had some very happy years in Mercy Primary and became a bit complacent, thinking that perhaps this was going to be my niche, for the rest of my life. How wrong I was! My mother became very ill with colon cancer and for five years she suffered with…
Tags: elder care, mother, social care, training
'You need to bide your time when you come into a new place. Watch and wait for the first year and then you can begin to introduce changes.'
By that time I had been changed from Abbeyville, back to Mercy Primary School on the Crumlin Road in September 1979 where Sr.M.Emilian Moloney had taken up the post of principal after Sr.M.Bernadette Agnew retired. Sr M Emilian, Sr Frances Forde and…