Sr Monica comes home to the memories

The daughter of former Kilcullen Boys National School principal Paddy Byrne visited Kilcullen recently and was reunited with former classmates here, writes Brian Byrne. She's Sr Monica Byrne, a Cross & Passion sister living in Bolton, UK.

While in Kilcullen, she met with Mary Orford who is working across the county on the Schools Folklore Project for Kildare County Library, following the original 75th anniversary event she organised in the Library in Kilcullen last November. As part of the commemoration of the Project, Mary had sent copies of their work to a number of local participants, including Sr Monica, which prompted the nun to make a visit home.

She also met Betty Domican and Madge Clarke, both classmates who had taken part in the Folklore Scheme with her. "They shared memories of their schooldays, and people and events from the 1930s," says Mary. "She also visited Scoil Bhride, and enthralled the pupils with her stories of what school was like in those days." She met too with Nessa Dunlea and Anita O'Neill, who had come to join her reunion with Betty and Madge.

With the help of Anne Corrigan of Abbeyaun, Sr Monica walked the old road she used to travel each day to school and also pinpointed the location of her family home, long since demolished to make way for the motorway. In addition to being a national teacher, Sr Monica's father was also a Labour member of Kildare County Council, and her mother was well known as a breeder of pedigree dogs and a caterer at events around the country.

As she left Kilcullen to return to the UK where she works as a hospice chaplain, having retired from teaching, Sr Monica was left with warm memories of her short stay prompted by a Kildare Library Service event.

"I never believed that the Library Service could be so instrumental in putting former schoolmates of so long ago together again," Mary says. "Sr Monica was born in 1928, and I hope I look half as good as she does if I reach her age."

ED Note: Many thanks to Mary Orford for providing the details for this heartwarming story.