Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 179
D.O.B. 12.09.1892
First Profession: 17.03.1950
Died: 22.12.1958 Aged: 66 years
Mrs. Rita OConnell (née Rita Maher), a mature widow when she entered MMM at Rosemount on 16 July 1947, was full of life and enthusiasm. She was born in Tullow, Co. Carlow.
Following profession, she was assigned to St. Patrick’s, Kiltegan, for six months’ general housekeeping duties. She then returned to Rosemount.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 333
D.O.B. 04.08.1934
First Profession: 26.04.1955
Died: 03.09.1966 Aged: 32 years
Sr. Helen O’Brien was born in Fermoy, Co. Cork in 1938. She was the eldest in a family of four and the only girl. She attended her early education at the Presentation Sisters in Crosshaven, Cork. She then worked as a clerical officer for two years with the Land Commission in the Civil Service in Dublin.
Helen experienced tragedy at a young age. Her father died when she was nine years old and her brother Jody was killed in a road traffic accident just weeks after his graduation from university. These two events affected her deeply.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 23
D.O.B. 11.11.1896
First Profession: 08.09.1942
Died: 16.02.1984 Aged: 87 years
Sr. Margaret Mary, originally from Co. Kildare, but living in Dublin at the time of her entrance, was a highly qualified surgeon, obstetrician and gynaecologist when she entered at Rosemount on 16 July 1939.
Because her mother was a widow and an invalid and Margaret Mary was her only child, it was arranged that Mrs. Nolan would live in Rosemount. There she truly shared life with the young MMM aspirants, one room being designated as ‘Mrs. Nolan’s dormitory’.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No. 5
D.O.B. 10.02.1917
First Profession 08.09.1942
Died: 20.06.2002 Aged: 85 years
Born in Dublin, Caroline (Carrie) Nichols met Mother Mary before the congregation was founded. Indeed she is regarded as a founding member, with Sisters Magdalen and Patrick.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 696
D.O.B. 26.09.1910
First Profession: 03.10.1966
Died: 28.12.1989 Aged: 79 years
Sheila Nolan, baptised Kathleen Maureen, from Dublin, was termed a ‘late vocation’ when she entered MMM on 11 February1964. She was still to give over twenty years of ministry, mainly in the field of bookkeeping.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No.
D.O.B. 15.09.1915
First Profession: 17.03.1952
Died: 05.02.2009 Aged: 93 years
Mary Ellen Newell was born in Cloonkeely, Tuam, Co. Galway. She had two brothers and one sister. After leaving school she went to England where she trained as a general nurse at Chester City Hospital from 1934 to 1938. After obtaining her midwifery certification in November 1938 she worked as a staff nurse at Walton Hospital, Liverpool, before moving on to Wales in 1939, where she worked in Chatsworth Maternity Hospital, Prestatyn, for the next ten years.
Nationality: American
Congregational Register No. 529
D.O.B. 28.12.1910
First Profession: 04.04.1957
Died: 28.04.1991 Aged: 80 years
Helen Navin came from Brookline, Massachusetts, USA, and entered in Winchester, Massachusetts, on 2 October 1954, already a mature woman.
She is remembered as ‘J.A.’ and as being able to turn her hand to anything and everything. One Sister remembered that she had good reason to be grateful for J.A’s ability to “do anything” because when she accidentally dropped a bust of Cardinal Cushing one day, Sr. Joseph Anthony plastered up the face and hat so skillfully that no one could tell that it had ever been broken!
Sister Benedicta was born Maria Benedicta in 1954 in Ggoli-Sseeta, Mpigi, Uganda. She received her early education there and trained as a nurse in Kenya before joining the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1978. She then trained in midwifery. After her profession she was assigned to Uganda and worked as an auxiliary anaesthetist.
Nationality: Ugandan
Congregational Register No.
D.O.B. 24.06.1924
First Profession 03.10.1965
Died: 25.08.2009 Aged: 84 years
Katarina Nakintu was born into a devout Catholic family in Uganda in 1924. She had six sisters and a number of brothers, some who died young from a heart condition. As a young girl she had the desire to become a religious and joined the Marie Reparatrix Convent in Entebbe where she stayed for five years, leaving after the African Sisters became an independent community from the Marie Reparatrix Sisters.
