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.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No. 400
D.O.B. 11.02.1915
First Profession 08.09.1957
Died: 17.08.2001 Aged: 86 years
Ellen Murphy, one of five daughters, was born in Bogherduff, Claremorris, Co. Mayo. Her early education in the local Convent of Mercy school was followed by midwifery training in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. Ellen spent several years as a midwife both in Dublin and Galway before entering MMM in 1955.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 494
D.O.B. 06.10.1931
First Profession: 03.10.1961
Died: 13.01.1999 Aged: 67 years
From Drogheda itself, Sr. Presentina (baptised Mary Therese) entered MMM on 3 April 1959.
One could call her “an arts and crafts person”, as her gifts were much appreciated in the Drogheda and Naples sewing rooms and her culinary expertise was put to the test in Bettystown and in the London Apostolic Delegation.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 06
D.O.B. 26.06.1908
First Profession: 06.01.1945
Died: 24.02.1998 Aged: 89 years
Honora Murphy, from Co. Cork, entered at Greenbank on 28 November 1936, before MMM was even founded. She was to be the sixth member of the congregation. It seems strange now to note that her first profession took place a whole nine years later! Such were the unusual times of the foundation period in MMM.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 99
D.O.B: 28.09.1923
First Profession: 08.09. 1946
Died: 07.10.1973 Aged: 50 years
Nellie Murphy, from Milford, Co. Cork, entered MMM on 26 August 1943. She trained as an nurse in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin and then staffed as theatre sister from 1947 to 49 in Drogheda.
In 1949 she was assigned to Nigeria, where she was in charge of the operating theatre in Anua until 1954, when she returned to Drogheda to do her midwifery training
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No. 398
D.O.B. 02.11.1933
First Profession 08.09.1957
Died: 01.02.2004 Aged: 70 years
Mary Bridget (Bridie) Murphy was born and raised in Monmahogue, Tramore, Co. Waterford. She came from a farming family and had three brothers and one sister. Bridie, as she was called then, was educated by the Sisters of Charity in Tramore before going on to technical school, where she undertook a commercial course. She then worked as a bookkeeper for a local butcher. Bridie joined MMM at the age of 20 and took the name Sr. Mary Brigidine.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 125
D.O.B. 20.12.1925
First Profession: 08.09.1947
Died: 05.01.1988 Aged: 63 years
Alice Christina, from Dundalk, Co. Louth, was a twin. She entered MMM on 22 August 1944.
She was missioned to Nigeria in 1952 but spent only two years there before returning to Drogheda in 1954 after a car accident.
