SR MARY LAID TO REST
FOND TRIBUTES WERE PAID TO THE LATE SR MARY GILBRIDE
ON the night before she died, when asked for the hundredth time how she was feeling, former principal of the Ursuline Convent Sr Mary Gilbride replied, “on top of the world, darling.”
The Grange native passed away peacefully at the Ursuline community residence in Temple Street last Wednesday, 9 th August. She would have been 83 years old on August 26 th.
Professed as an Ursuline nun on 20 th August 1959, and qualified as a Home Economics and Religion teacher, Sr Mary was remembered as a “great educator” and “visionary” by members of her congregation.
She served as principal of the Ursuline College in Finisklin, Sligo, from 1973-1990.
She went on to become Congregational Leader of the Irish Ursuline Union from 1990-1996.
“She made an enormous contribution, she was an educator par excellence,” her colleague Sr Dorothy told The Sligo Champion.
“She was a visionary. She could see a future many of us couldn’t see. And to the end she was like that, despite her illness,” she said.
“She had a wonderful presence. Very much into the Humanity side of things. While there was firmness, there was a fairness trying to get justice. She was a very compassionate woman as well,” added Sr Dorothy.
Requiem mass in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was con-celebrated by nine priests, with Fr Gerard Cryan the lead celebrant.
“She wouldn’t gild the lillies,” said Fr Cryan in his homily, referring to her ‘no nonsense’ style, “but she made sure they were watered, tended to and pruned if necessary.”
Fr Cryan, who got to know St Mary in her latter years, said she challenged and comforted in equal measure and said her matter-of-fact and practical manner made her a good diocesan advisor.
“She endured some very difficult years,” he said, referring to her battle with illness, adding that she had suffered in her time from cancer and TB but was “always a Christian stoic” who would practice the words of the Ursuline founder, St Angela: “Be consoled. Do not doubt. Persevere faithfully and take care not to lose your fervour.”
Elphin Bishop Emeritus Christy Jones attended to say the final prayers over her coffin.
“There’s always something very special about the funeral mass of a Religious. We’re celebrating a life which was offered to God 50 years ago,” he told mourners.
“She was a woman of great wisdom. Life has become very tough for religious in the last few decades, especially because of a hostile media. But the whole of society has been enriched by the prayer of the Religious and will be impoverished as they pass on,” said Bishop Jones.
Past and present staff and pupils of the Ursuline College formed a guard of honour outside the Cathedral as Sr Mary’s remains were carried to the hearse, for the short drive to her final resting place in the Ursuline Convent Cemetery Finisklin.