Drogheda Independent

Mother Malachy (Downey) and her enormous efforts for the people of northern Pakistan

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‘ The poverty in which these people live is so great as to be unimaginab­le to the ordinary person here in Ireland.”

This statement comes from a Drogheda nun, at present on a three months’ holiday here, who has spent all her twelve years in the religious life working for the people of a small area in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

Mother Malachy (formerly Miss Bernadette Downey), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Downey, 12 Dyer Street, Drogheda, has been supervisin­g the education of about 1,000 children in Peshawar since she was professed at the Presentati­on Sisters’ Novitiate in Bailieboro, Co. Cavan.

The Presentati­on nuns have been in the North West part of Pakistan for about thirty years and there are two schools in the area, of which Mother Malachy is the superiores­s. In one school, the 300 children are entirely Christian while in the other the 700 pupils are both Christians and Moslems.

This is Mother Malachy’s first visit home since she went away and she is visiting all her relatives in the area during her stay, which ends in September. In addition to her mother and father, she has also been visiting her brothers, John (Dyer St.), Gerald (Ricardo Terrace), and Maurice (John St.), and her sisters Mrs. Joan Piggott ( Windmill Road), Mrs. Ronnie Mullen (Monasterbo­ice) and Mrs. Pauline Smith (Clogherhea­d).

Though they live in an area where a Pakistani Air Force Station is situated, they have never been in great danger although during the war with India in 1965 regarding Kashmir “we spent a lot of our time in the trenches.”

Making the remarks quoted at the outset, Mother Malachy said the people were very poor indeed and that they lived in oneroomed mud houses. “If any of your .readers,” says Mother Malachy, “would like to ‘adopt’ a poor family out there we would be very grateful to them. If anyone would like to. help by, say giving £1 or £2 a year towards the upkeep of a family; I can assure them that we will keep them informed of the.progress of the family.”

THE first meeting of the Marian Park (Housewives) Parochial Associatio­n was heid recently when the following committee was elected:, president, Mrs. P Buckley; treasurer, Mrs. T. Reid; .secretary, Mrs. A. Weldon; committee-members Mrs. O’Brien, Mrs. Davitt, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Quinn, and Mrs. Leech.

The aims of the Associatio­n are to help in raising funds for the parish to improve conditions, particular­ly where children are concerned, and to try to arrange play centres where youngsters can play happily in safety.

The members of the Associatio­n would especially like to see little girls catered for and also a place provided where young boys could kick a ball without interferin­g with other people’s property and gardens.

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