Visit to Ireland

Our programme in Hackney continues with great inspirational input from patients, families, Staff and Sisters. Every day brings food for reflection, joys and struggle of some kind. We enjoy the education seminars on Wednesday afternoons as well as the following discussion among staff, who are very involved in the care and nursing of the patients.

Each month a Staff- Building activity is organised by the Pastoral Care Team. Last month it was a Bowling night and this month, a Quiz night, to which we were invited. It proved a great fun night with Aussie questions thrown in for our benefit and I was very happy to be on the winning table. Australia is well respected here but I find that I am supposed to be both a champion swimmer and cricket fan!!! Such is the Brits’ view of us.

The sisters who have worked in both Zambia and Nigeria hold our sisters in the highest regard and speak so highly of their influence and wonderful work in Education, Nursing etc. in Zambia and Nigeria. I won’t mention names as I am sure to leave someone out but your names are all mentioned with great love, respect and gratitude. I have a high standard to maintain.

I now have to tell you of our wonderful Dublin trip.  We flew there on 2nd. July and were met by Patricia Lenihan and Mairead, two members of the leadership team who planned our five days, were our drivers and Tour Guides and did everything possible to make this a memorable experience.  We are overcome by the welcome and generosity of the sisters wherever we go. We stayed at the Generalate at Caritas, Sandymount with Mary Christian, the Congregational Leader, and Pereka, the Vicar. We arrived in time for a beautiful welcome lunch that Sr. Teresa had specially prepared for us. The afternoon was free so the first expedition into Dublin was made.

Our wonderful “guides” collected us on Friday morning to visit the Gardiner Street Convent and commence the Trail of significant places in the life of our Foundress and the Congregation.   Sr. Josephine McDonald (a guest at our 2002 Chapter) was our wonderful tour guide. We returned to the Convent to another beautiful meal and welcome from the whole large community. In the afternoon it was off to the Mary Aikenhead Heritage Centre at Harold’s Cross where Sr. Rosemary McGowan gave of her time, knowledge and warm welcome. My four friends were loath to leave as they so enjoyed the films and stories of so many apostolates of the Congregation.

We drove to Donnybrook and spent time at the grave of Mother Mary Aikenhead and paid a special visit to the grave of Sr. Baptist de Lacey, one of the original “five” who came to Australia and who later returned to Ireland. Hers is a very special story.

On Saturday, Patricia and Mairead arrived early for the trip to Foxford in County Mayo to visit the “Providence” Woollen Mills established in 1892 by a Sister of Charity who was an inspiration to me from the time I read her story, as a Novice. Against all odds she opened a woollen mill as a way of improving the social and economic conditions of the people in one of the most deprived parts of Ireland. She and a number of other sisters are buried in Foxford.

On Sunday, we drove the Cork Trail of significant places in the childhood and early life of Mary Aikenhead. Again, there was a wonderful welcome from the Community and a beautiful meal prepared at St. Vincent’s Cork. Sr. Miriam Twohig, a tiny, energetic, far from young sister accompanied us on our pilgrimage and brought the early days of Cork and MaryAikenhead to life with her knowledge, energy and dedication. Intermittent rain fell but only added to the atmosphere of Cork city. While in Cork we were able to visit several places run by the sisters, including a residence for people in care, a hospice and a wonderful bright, happy place where sixty women with a mental disability are so beautifully cared for.

Monday gave us a free morning and another special lunch with the sisters at Caritas. Our enthusiastic tour guides, Patricia and Mairead, drove us to Glendalough in the afternoon - one of the most important sites of monastic ruins in Ireland, where the founder, St. Kevin, died over fourteen centuries ago. Here again we experienced the ancient history and beauty of Ireland, driving through glorious green countryside and quaint villages. Even the periodic rain added atmosphere.

Tuesday was a free day to explore Dublin. Finally Mary Christian and Pereka walked us to the airport coach in the evening. We left Ireland with wonderful memories of a beautiful, ancient place that also holds the origins of our Congregation. However, one of our lasting memories is of the warmth, hospitality and munificent generosity of the sisters. We will never forget them.

We flew into London late at night, caught the coach to Stratford from where we still had to go on the Tube and bus to Hackney. Imagine our joy to alight from the coach and find our guardian angels, Catherine and Angela, waiting to drive us “home” to Hackney. We have decided that one of the very best things about our Ireland trip was the welcome back. It is as though we have been away for months and every detail of our visit had to be shared. We just feel so much a part of this place.

As you can imagine, these young women are benefiting in many ways from this great range of experiences and fit very easily into any situation that presents itself. What we are doing in this GAP project is considered very worthwhile by all we meet.

Apart from these “big” highlights, our days continue with ward visits, assisting in the Day Hospice, meeting patients’ visitors and taking them into the coffee shop for a break, interviewing and videoing the elderly sisters to record their stories, wheelchair outings, cards and laughter with the elderly, assisting in liturgies, both for the sisters and patients - and anything else that comes up during the day. Our GAP participants are very flexible and open to needs as they see them. All speak of the joy of having young people around.

Actually we diverted from our routine yesterday, to visit a local school. Amanda, the wife of Tom, who is the Anglican Chaplain here, and also a minister, teaches at Clapton Girls’ Technical High School. There are almost a thousand pupils in the school, mostly Muslim, and a group came here to share in the Women’s Day of Prayer. We were invited over, so caught the bus and were welcomed by a group of senior girls who had prepared lunch for us, proudly took us on a tour of their school and then sat and talked for ages. They are truly beautiful girls and a good deal of sharing was done. As any teacher knows it doesn’t take long to pick up the vibes and the energy in a school. This one was special. It is an area very similar to Hackney yet these girls had the desire to achieve and contribute to society. The girls have exchanged phone numbers with our group and hope to meet up for a meal very soon.

I hope that this is of interest, as it is important to me to record these things and I really need to share the experience as I go. Everyone says that the GAP group will never be the same again, but neither will I. I am here for some reason. I’m not sure what it is but I know that I will always treasure these memories and the experience of sharing these months with the “foursome”.

Virginia