Her overseas assignment was to Nigeria, where she went in 1961 and worked in two MMM hospitals there: St. Luke’s at Anua and St. Mary’s at Urua Akpan.

When she retired from professional life, Eugene was regarded as a great treasure in the MMM Motherhouse. Prayer was the guiding force in her life. She took great interest in the activities of younger sisters and was always an encouragement to them.

She was known far and wide as an excellent midwife and a very caring person for mothers and babies.

She was heroic in bearing the pain of her final illness. She was cared for in Áras Mhuire and visited by the Sisters and her loving family. She died in Áras Mhuire on 25 January 2011.

Many people travelled from Gortin in Co. Tyrone for Sister Eugene’s funeral Mass. They were joined by staff and former patients of Our Lady of Lourdes who were grateful for her care in the years when she was assistant matron of the maternity unit. Her brother Felix and her nephew, Omar, were among those who came to Drogheda from Tyrone. Her other surviving brother, Jim, lives in America.>

The Mass was celebrated by Fr. Pat Kelly, assisted by Fr. Neil Blayney, both of St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, and Fr. Sean Ryan, SMA, before her burial in St. Peter’s Cemetery.

>Born in 1918, Sister Eugene came from a family of seven children. She qualified as a nurse in Birmingham, England before entering the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1950. Later she qualified as a midwife.