22nd September 1933 – 22nd February 2022

Sr. M. Trinitas, baptized Margaret McMullan, was born In Belfast, N. Ireland. She came from a large family and started primary school in Belfast. However, the Second World War had started by this time and, to avoid the bombings, Margaret’s parents decided to move her and her siblings to stay with relatives in Lurgan, a more rural area and safer. It was in Lurgan that Margaret finished her education and then returned to Belfast to study nursing and midwifery.

Margaret entered MMM in 1961, aged 28, and taking the name Sr. Mary Trinitas. After her initial religious formation, and because she was already a trained nurse and midwife, she was assigned immediately to Nigeria. Here she found great fulfilment and happiness; she was Matron in many of the hospitals where she worked. Her total time in Nigeria came to thirty-nine years and she only returned to Ireland when she was needed back home for another ministry.

Sr. Trinitas’s first community in Nigeria was in Ikot Ene, followed by Eleta, Ibadan, Ogoja and finally Itam VVF Hospital. Everywhere she went she brought her good humour and her practical common-sense way of getting things done.

When she retired from Nigeria aged 70, it was only to take up another appointment back in Drogheda as Clinic Sister, looking after the sick or elderly Sisters. This appointment lasted for over ten years before she finally retired. In retirement she would help out with guests, reception duties, and, in her spare time, played a good game of bridge!

Sr. Trinitas had a sister, Sr. Anne, who joined the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa and, in later life, is based in Dundalk, not far from Drogheda. They often visited each other and enjoyed both the family experience as well as all the missionary connections.

Sr. Trinitas’s health deteriorated slowly during 2021 and after a spell in hospital she was transferred to Aras Mhuire Nursing home where she died peacefully on February 22nd 2022. Her family and some of the Sisters were with her as she died. She is buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery.