'Lady with the Lamp' link to Kilcullen

A woman from Old Kilcullen who worked with Florence Nightingale is remembered in a book recently published in Galway about the famous Sisters of Mercy order.

Sr Aloysius Doyle, originally Catherine, was born to John and Mary Doyle in 1820. Six years after joining the Convent of Mercy in Carlow she went to work with Florence Nightingale in the Crimea War, where she served for three years in the terrible conditions of the military hospitals there. Afterwards she was one of the founding sisters of the Mercy Convent in Gort, Co Galway, where she lived for 51 years.

Her memories of the journey to Crimea and her work in that war are recorded in 'Near Quiet Water', a book written by Sr Mary De Lourdes Fahy which tells the story of the early years of the Gort house.

The chapter is entitled 'Sisters of Mercy and the Crimean War' and details Sr Aloysius's journey through the Meditteranean, the Straits of Messina, Navarino and Athen to Gallipoli.

Going through Messina their old ship, the Egyptus was badly swamped in a storm and Aloysius and her fellow sisters feared for their lives. But the captain of the French registered vessel managed to make it to Navarino.

She described the conditions in the hospitals as 'appalling' and 'dilapidated'. "Only the strongest survived their first days in hospital," she wrote. "At the front, amputations were performed without anaesthetics, bandages or sterilisation. The sick were tended by the sick, the dying were left to die."

Sr Aloysius returned to Carlow in 1857 and from there went to Gort with three companion sisters to set up the new Convent of Mercy. In 1879 she was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria. As travelling to Windsor to receive it personally would have been too hard for her, it was sent to Gort.

There are a number of grand-nieces and grand-nephews of the nun still living in the Kilcullen area, notably the Doyles of Brannockstown. Among those who went to Gort recently to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the convent were Thomas, Angela, Kathleen, Sean, Mai, Annette, Tim and Greg.

'Near Quiet Water' has been published to mark the anniversary. As a history of a religious house in Gort it has its own interest. But as a background to a local woman who saw and dealt with horrors that no one should have to it is also a commentary which still has, unfortunately, resonance today.

'Near Quiet Water' - The Story of the early years of Gort Mercy Convent and its branch houses. By Mary de Lourdes Fahy, RSM. Published by the Sisters of Mercy, Western Province, Ballinasloe, Co Galway.

Brian Byrne.