Born in Knocknagree, Co Cork, very near the Cork-Kerry border, Kathleen was one of four girls and two boys. 

Kathleen entered Ardfoyle in September 1946 at the age of nineteen. Less than three years later, in March 1949, she made her first profession and vowed to consecrate her life to God, to make known God’s love and to work in the service of God’s kingdom, especially in Africa.

 

From then on she did her very best to remain faithful to that promise. She spent a few years in Ireland qualifying to be a teacher in the 50s and doing some promotion work in Ardfoyle for two years in the 80s, but otherwise she spent her missionary life in Africa, as a teacher, a teacher of teachers, and an administrator of both schools and hospitals. She spent thirty six years in Nigeria and four in Ghana. Symbols from both of these countries are here before the altar today. In Nigeria Kathleen worked in Kaduna, Agbor, Benin, Asaba, and Ibadan and in Ghana she worked in Kenyasi and in Cape Coast. 

 

Sr Kathleen certainly met many difficulties during her years but it would seem that God always put her where she was most needed. For example, she was appointed principal of Mary Mount College Agbor in 1968, just after the very brutal and painful Civil war, and as her past pupils said “on her fell the task of reconstruction and rehabilitation. Under her able leadership the College was revitalized… When she left in 1972, the scars left by the civil war on the compound and students were healed”.  The Provincial Superior of Nigeria has written: “With her giftedness, Sr Kathleen touched so many lives.

 

She was an exceptional administrator. Her clarity of mind and great sense of discipline gave many people a sure sense of direction and as such she formed so many dependable leaders. Amongst her many qualities, we will always remember Sr Kathleen Sweeney as a dynamic, focused and hardworking person”. Thank you Sr Kathleen. Your legacy will surely live on. May God grant you eternal rest.