RIP Sr. Theresa O'Brien
Sr. Maria Lee, OLA Ireland Assistant Provincial, shares some thoughts at Sr. Theresa's funeral. Sr. Theresa passed away on April 6th, 2016. May she rest in peace.
Sr. Theresa O'Brien, RIP.
1921-2016
Good afternoon and welcome. We are gathered here today to celebrate Sr. Theresa’s long and fruitful life and bid her farewell as we entrust her into God’s loving arms. She has now gone to join her parents, John and Margaret, and family members, Maureen and brother Seamus (Br. Henry, of the De la Salle order), who, no doubt, are rejoicing as they welcome her among them in Heaven. We offer our sincere sympathy to her brother, Diarmuid, now in his nineties, living in Melbourne, Australia, to her nieces Mary and Anne, her nephews George and Gus, to grand nieces and nephews, relatives and friends, many of whom are here today. You are all very welcome.
Welcome also to the OLA Sisters who have come from other communities in Ireland and to our brothers, the SMA Fathers, who are ever faithful and supportive to us.
Born in Shepperton, Skibbereen, Co. Cork, on 24th May 1921, the second of four children, Theresa is just short of celebrating her 95th Birthday. She was baptized Catherine in the Parish of Castlehaven. Following her schooling at Castlehaven National School and the Convent of Mercy, Skibbereen, Teresa followed God’s call and entered Ardfoyle in September, 1938. Just recently on 5th March, she celebrated the 75th anniversary of her first profession which she made in March, 1941.
Studies took Theresa to the University of Manchester and Liverpool where she followed her natural bent for Domestic Science and obtained a Teaching Certificate in 1948. It was not long before we find Theresa on mission in Kaduna, and a little later in Queen of Apostles, Kakuri (both in Northern Nigeria) where she taught until 1964. It was during those years, in 1960, that Nigeria obtained her Independence.
Theresa seems to have been able and willing to move around and adjust to whatever mission she was assigned. A transfer took her to St. Agnes’s Teacher Training College in Maryland, Lagos, where in her memoirs, Theresa said her ‘time of teaching there was very pleasant and enjoyable’. Following home leave, Theresa was asked to go to Ibadan to replace Sr. Hilda as supervisor of the Catholic Primary Schools and also St. Brigid’s Social Centre. This was a new experience and she found it very interesting and challenging.
And then, Theresa writes: ‘Never a dull moment in Missionary life. The 1966 Coup took place.’ That same year Theresa was transferred back North to Akwanga where, as she says, she ‘soon settled into life in the Teacher Training College and day by day classes went on until the peaceful living was changed when trouble erupted’. Many families from the south, mid-west and east felt it safer at that time to return home, taking their daughters with them, of course.
In 1967, Theresa was asked to return to Ardfoyle. While there, she did a Summer Course in Catechetics. She was then sent to teach in St. Mary’s, Leigh, Lancashire, England. The Sisters in her community there became deeply involved in Parish work and visitation. According to Theresa’s memoirs Archbishop Beck of Liverpool wanted a ‘New Pentecost’. Her account of the experience can be summed up in her own words, ‘I felt I’d like to stay at that work for the rest of my life.’
But that was not to be so! In September ’68 Theresa returned to Lagos to St. Mary’ Free Primary School, and later to St. Mary’s Secondary School, Iwo. However, a plan had been in the Provincial Leadership pipeline for some time that Theresa would go to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, to study Community Development, a Leadership Course. This finally came about in September 1969.
Theresa then found herself once more back in Iwo, (September, 1970) where there was ample scope for her newly acquired skills, not only in St. Mary’s Secondary School but in the many outlying villages. Apart from full time Home Economics teaching and school work her involvement can be seen in the activities she mentions: ‘parish visitation, Legion of Mary work, visitation of night market, and teaching some of the Muslim women English when requested to do so by some of their leaders!’ Talk about energy, enthusiasm and total commitment! And Teresa didn’t just get involved herself, she brought the girls with her and got them involved, even when a bout of guinea worm in the villages needed medical care! She says: ‘The students themselves were very happy. They were greatly motivated to their future careers of medical work, agriculture, nursing and adult education!’ There is absolutely no doubt of her love for the students, the people and her zeal for the Kingdom of God!
In September 1978, we find Theresa in Hawkestone Hall for a sabbatical, after which she helped out in Castlemacgarrett, Ardfoyle and Rostrevor. By 1980, Theresa was once again back in Nigeria where she did Parish work in Maryland, and later, in Ubiaja and in Benin City. Through an experience of small Christian communities in Mushin, Lagos, which obviously touched her very deeply, Theresa began setting them up in Ubiaja. While in Benin City, Theresa followed a correspondence course (Life and Light) which re-enforced her knowledge of Bible and Catechetics and helped in her Parish work.
Her days in Nigeria were coming to their end and Theresa took up an appointment to Leigh in January 1993. She returned to Ardfoyle in September and also spent some time helping in SMA, Blackrock Road. The Sisters tell me that she continued with home visitation, attending funerals of the families of the Infirmary Staff and those of family friends in west Cork, collecting Mite boxes and participating in flag days and various charitable works.
How can one reduce the work of a life-time of 95 years into so brief a telling? For some years now, Theresa has been confined by illness to the Infirmary, where her beautiful smile never betrayed her suffering, where her eyes lit up when family, friends, staff and Sisters visited her.
Our thanks to the Infirmary and House Staff for their loving care and attention to Sister Teresa during her years of illness, to the House Council and all the Sisters in Ardfoyle for their love and concern shown in so many ways.
To Sr. Theresa’s family, whom she loved very dearly, thank you for having supported her during her missionary life and for being faithful to her until the end. May God console you all at this time of loss.
Thanks to the SMA Fathers for your friendship and for always being there with us in our times of need. We deeply appreciate your presence here today even as you mourn the loss of your confrere, Fr. Jimmy Higgins.
I now hand over to Fr. Hugh Harkin to lead us in our Eucharist as we entrust Sr. Theresa into the loving hands of God. Thank you.
Sr. Maria Lee, Assistant Provincial of OLA (Ireland).
