Farewell to “Blue Nuns”

RE-INTERMENT OF SIX SISTERS

THE end of another great era in the history of Fermoy and its hinterland was celebrated by Mass in St Patrick's Church on Tuesday week last by Adm Rev Fr Aquin Casey, with the full Church choir in attendance as well as a very large local attendance to honour and recognise all the great work carried out over a century in the town by the Sisters of The Little Company of Mary, otherwise known as the “Blue Nuns” due to the colour of their clothing.

The Mass followed the official exhumation of the remains of 6 sisters who died in the early years and were buried in a burial plot in the former Convent on Monument Hill. The remains of the 6 sisters were arranged in front of the main altar in St Patrick's during the Mass.

Fr Casey in his homily described the work which the nuns did in the area for over a century as being heroic. Not only did they always cater for the poor and the needy of the area, but they were almost like a present day A&E department as people regaled about all the times they looked after the sick which included many home visits at all hours. Any child from the area and from the nearby Bishop Murphy school (then the CBS), who ever received a cut or a bruise of any kind or ran up a temperature was looked after by the nuns without hesitation.

The nuns were very definitely an integral part of the culture of Fermoy for many years, so much so that it was always recognised that when their only public appeal for help each year - the Annual Church Gate collection - took place it was always the best subscribed collection of the year and rightly so.

The nuns' remains were re-interred at their Order's regional headquarters in Castletroy near Limerick where their Convent and hospice is known as Milford House.

It was truly a nostalgic few moments as James Ronayne and staff drove the three hearses out from the Church and down Monument Hill past the place which was once their home and until now their place of rest, as they bade farewell to Fermoy for a final time.

May they rest in peace