Sister Carmel was born Rita Philomena Cooke in Dublin in 1923, part of a family of eight boys and two girls. She attended her early education with the Holy Faith and Dominican Sisters and trained in bookkeeping and typing. She worked as a secretary for two years before joining MMM in 1943.
After profession she worked in the x-ray department and outpatients in the International Missionary Training Hospital (now Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital) in Drogheda for five years. She began nurse training but discontinued after a time of ill health.
Sister Teresa Connolly (Aloysius) was born in 1920 in Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Ireland, but grew up in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. Her parents were Bridget (née Kelly) and John Connolly and she was one of a family of six, four girls and two boys. Before joining MMM she worked as a legal secretary in Dublin for two years.
She joined MMM in 1941 when the Congregation was not yet four years old. She had her initial religious formation in Rosemount, Dublin, the only house owned by MMM at that time.
Nationality: Irish
Congregation Register No: 60
D.O.B. 29.12.1912
First Profession: 17.03.1944
Died:10.04.1968 Aged: 55 years
Mary Connolly, from near Bantry, Co. Cork, entered MMM on 15 August 1941. She had been employed as a cheese maker in the creamery in Milford, Co. Cork, when she came in contact with MMM. Following profession, she qualified in domestic science in Sion Hill, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.
Sister Marie was born in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, a mining area near Manchester, England in 1914. She had one brother and one sister. 
Marie entered MMM at a time when choices for women were very limited. When she started her education, career options for girls were nursing or teaching.
She won a scholarship to secondary school and got into Saint Charles Training College in London, obtaining a teaching certificate. She became a primary school teacher and taught in Birmingham while applying for jobs nearer home so she could help her family. She taught for eight years, from the very young to fourteen-year-olds.
Sister Anne Elizabeth was born in Cloncovid, Co. Longford in 1924. One of eleven children, she received her early education in Longford. After completing studies in domestic economy she joined the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1946.
Her first assignment was to Nigeria in 1949, where she was initially involved in housekeeping. She later opened two MMM missions in Nigeria, in Urua Akpan and Use Abat.
Returning to Ireland, she guided young women in their early days in MMM in Clonmel and then spent sixteen years in Airmount Hospital, Waterford.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 300
D.O.B. 20.10.1920
First Profession: 01.06.1954
Died: 01.06.2008 Aged: 87 years
Anne Bridget Joan Clifton was born in Naas, Co Kildare and was brought up in Killester, Dublin, where she attended the Holy Faith Convent. She later attended Marino and Dun Laoghaire Technical Schools. She had one brother and two sisters, one of whom emigrated to Australia.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 113
D.O.B. 02.02.1908
First Profession: 08.09.1945
Died: 21.07.1973 Aged: 65 years
Baptised Mary Alice, from Rockcorry, Co. Monaghan, Loreto entered MMM in Drogheda on 28 October 1943. She had been a priest’s housekeeper before entering and continued as a capable and warm-hearted provider while in MMM. From 1948 – 50, she was assigned to St. Patrick’s, Kiltegan, which MMM was helping to staff at the time.
Sister Lelia was born Mary Elizabeth Cleary in Kildysart, County Clare in 1919. The second of eight children, she grew up on a farm in Clonola. She received her early education in Gortlass National School and later in Bruff Boarding School, County Limerick.
She trained as a nurse in Cork and as a midwife in the Coombe Hospital in Dublin.
She worked as a staff nurse, both in St. Anne’s Hospital in Dublin and in the county hospital in Clare, where she spent eight years. She joined the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1953.
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 156
D.O.B. 26.06.1908
First Profession: 09.09.1948
Died: 10.03.1981 Aged: 72 years
After many years working as a public health doctor in England, Monica, a native of Easkey, Co. Sligo, entered MMM on 7 March 1946. As a mature entrant, it wasn’t easy for her to relinquish her smoking habit, among other things, and she did not warm to Mother Mary’s kind gesture of offering her sweets in place of the cigarettes!
Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No. 39
D.O.B. 20.08.1921
First Profession 08.09.1943
Died: 28.02.2001 Aged: 79 years
Mairead was born in Killimer, County Clare, and it seems she entered MMM immediately after school. She qualified as the first MMM doctor in Dublin in 1947 and was almost immediately assigned to Nigeria. She is principally associated with Ogoja, where she spent almost twenty years of her missionary life. She also spent five years in Abakaliki, Nigeria. At this time she was known in MMM as Sr. M. Visitation.
