Sr Patricia and a chance meeting

I RECENTLY wrote about a group of nuns who left from Ireland to go to New Zealand many decades ago and one of them was Sister Patricia Gleeson, sister of Roger Gleeson who ran Gleeson’s pub.

Clogherhead man Nicholas Dunne read the story and got in touch.

He told a tale from the mid 60s when he was waiting for a bus opposite St Michael’s church in Clogherhead.

He was chatting to a neighbour when two nuns came along to post a letter in the post box at the corner (it’s still there!).

He was introduced and said he was off to London to get a ship, hoping to end up in New Zealand or Australia.

They said they had a convent in Auckland and he should visit if he’s there.

Months later, he was in Auckland and went to the convent one Sunday and got a great welcome when he told them the story.

And it was here he met Patricia Gleeson who asked him to go in to see her brother when he got home. ‘I duly did,’ Nicholas stated, ‘and we shared a bottle of brandy!’