The Nuns

Anna (known as Jo) was the first to join a convent in July 1933 and became Sr Attracta. She was followed in 1934 by 14 year old Bridgie who joined the Ursulines. In 1935, two months after turning 18, Kitty joined Jo in the Cluny sisters and took the name Sr. Francesca; she had wanted to take Michael, in memory of her brother but her request was refused on the basis that there were too many Sr. Michaels. In 1938, 18 year old Maura (Sr Vincent) joined the Sisters of Mercy and would spend her life in England; Teeshie (Sr Ignatius) followed in 1941, a month after her 17^th birthday.

The youngest children, PJ (b.1928), Tim (b.1929), Chrissie (b.1930) and Paul (b.1934), were hardly old enough to have any memory of their sisters as young women in Kilregane and would only get to know them much later as adults.

With only ten years between her and four of the nuns, Nora probably felt their departure most keenly. Her sisters would have been her close companions through her childhood, but by 1941, when Nora was only 16, all five nuns had gone, Lil had married, and only 27 year old Margaret and 10 year old Chrissie remained at home. On Kitty's last night in Kilregane before leaving for her new life in Paris, she and Nora shared a bed and Nora wept with the knowledge that this would be their last time together for many a day.

The sisters themselves could go decades without meeting, and it wasn’t until 1964 that the entire family planned to reunite back in Kilregane. Sadly, Bridgie took ill at Paris airport as she was about to board for home. She had to turn back and would have to wait another few years before she would see her family again. All other 14 surviving siblings made it home.

Mam with the five nuns, from R-L: Maura, Jo, Kitty, Teeshie and Bridgie.

The visits home for all the nuns were bitter-sweet, especially in the early years when they were required to stay in the local convent and were effectively under curfew during the precious days and weeks they were home. If they were lucky, the convent would have no room and they could stay at home. 

At Kilregane they were welcomed home by Mam when she was alive, and later by Willie and his wife Agnes MacDonald.  There they would rely on Ned Flynn to pick them up in the morning to take them to Mass in Lorrha. On more than a few occasions, the sisters would be waiting well on time on the road, while Ned drove up, just on time and with his tie and shoelaces still undone.

The sisters revelled in the freedom of country life. Over the long days of the Irish summer, they walked the lanes and byways stopping only to have a chat or pick blackberries. They loved going in to Lorrha and catching up with all the local news with neighbours like the Hardings. On sunny days they would go to the bog, tramping happily alongside Willie on his tractor. 

Jo

Jo and Kitty were in Ferbane together with the Sisters of Cluny. Every Sunday they would have an hour together in recreation time and would see each other every day in the chapel. They also got the occasional visit from their father who cycled the 30km (or 18 miles) there and back to see his daughters. As Jo set off for Dublin and Africa, the girls had to say their goodbyes the Sunday before she departed. Even though Jo and Kitty were in the same Congregation, there was no communication between the sisters in the different countries in those days. Kitty remembers being shocked to see how old Jo looked when they met again 17 years later. 
 

Jo spent most of her life on missionary work in the Gambia and Sierra Leone. She was bursar and in charge of managing whatever funds the community had. She enjoyed telling a story of the time the sisters complained about the near inedible boiled eggs they were getting. Jo spoke to the cook and explained the need to boil the eggs for a shorter time. When this didn’t work, Jo bought an egg-timer and gave it to the cook, but the eggs remained inedible. Jo went to enquire why the egg-timer had made no difference, only to learn that the egg-timer had been put into the saucepan with the eggs.

Kitty

The departure of each sister from Kilregane was marked with stoicism, sadness and some memorable moments. As Kitty readied on morning of her departure to her new life in the convent in Ferbane, Mam prepared a special breakfast of rabbit pie. Kitty, aware that she was most probably eating some of that day's dinner and worried that someone else would get less to eat later, did her best not to eat too much.

Mam went with her to Ferbane, bringing along the one year old Paul. Kitty remembers Paul being given sweets in the convent parlour. She can also remember the moment of anguish as her coat was taken from her, never to be seen again. The stylish tan-coloured woollen coat had a round collar and a row of buttons along each sleeve and had been made for her by a local needle-woman, Mrs Lavelle. Kitty had paid for it herself from savings from her job in the convent kitchen in Portumna. While hoping that the coat would go to a needy person, Kitty wished she’d had the foresight to give it to one of her own sisters.

Kitty had, like Jo, joined the Sisters of Cluny, a French order focused on teaching and missionary work. Kitty was professed in Paris in 1937 as Sr Francesca of Christ the King, and was allowed a short visit home before being sent overseas. The message with Kitty's travel itinerary was sent to Lorrha post office and Miss Raymond or Miss Fleming in the post office got the message to Kilregane. John Slevin borrowed a car to pick up his daughter and bring her home.

Kitty recalls arriving home dressed in her new habit and how “there was holy murder in the house when they saw me dressed up”. Kitty has a strong memory of photos being taken of her in her habit standing with her proud parents and of trying to resist the pressure to pose. She was worried that photos of this nature were frowned upon by the Order, as they were somehow considered a form of vanity and an unwarranted personal indulgence.

Kitty with Mam and Dad, not entirely comfortable with the photographs being taken.

Kitty travelled widely with the Cluny sisters, setting up communities and teaching in Martinique, New Zealand and Fiji. Her last posting was to Australia and she still lives in Melbourne where she celebrated the 80^th anniversary of her profession in July this year.

Kitty was sent first to Martinique where she had to adjust to a vastly different climate and new language and culture. She was also the only Irish sister there. They had a school for girls and Kitty had some responsibility for the forty or so boarders. She was in charge of ringing the bell for five o’clock prayer, and would reach out her bedroom window to pull on the rope. Kitty made her final vows in Guadeloupe, taking an overnight boat journey from Martinique to Pointe-à-Pitre. 

In 1948, having completed ten years in Martinique, Kitty arrived back in Ireland. She had clearly acquitted herself well and, though still very young, rose in position to become Mother Francesca. After a short time teaching at the Cluny school in Sackville Street in Dublin, she was charged with setting up a new community in New Zealand.

In an expedition lasting 16 days, the five nuns took fifteen flights, one ferry and one five hour bus journey, travelling to Auckland via Scotland, Iceland, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, San Francisco, Honolulu and Fiji. 

The nuns were featured in the Winnipeg Free Press on 21st February 1948 as they made their way to New Zealand via Iceland, Canada, the US and South Pacific.

At Winnipeg, exhausted but resilient, the nuns were met by a Mr O’Brien of Trans-Canada Air who brought them to the Fort Garry Hotel, one of the most elegant, grand hotels in Canada. The women ordered room service and wondered at their good fortune to be eating such delicious food with “scarcely anything but silver glittering on the table”. While they worried that such indulgence might be going against the ‘Rule’, Mother Francesca noted that no one had thought to anticipate setting a Rule prohibiting five Sisters feasting in the finest five-star hotel in Winnipeg! The next day, O’Brien brought along a photographer and reporter to do a feature for the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper. After this ‘séance’, as Kitty called it in her diary, “our friend Mr O Brien proposed to drive us around the city to have a look at it and to visit the Cathedral. Of course, our curiosity rose to the occasion. How lovely too to see the sun shining on the heaps of snow. You can be sure I realised that I was no longer in dear Martinique!”

After nine years in New Zealand, Kitty moved to Fiji. In 1955, the Cluny Convent in Fiji hosted the Von Trapp Family, whose story inspired the musical ‘The Sound of Music’. The group were on a tour of the South Pacific, their last tour, and there is a lovely photograph of Kitty with Maria, Baroness von Trapp in Suva. 

Kitty with Maria, Baroness von Trapp whose story inspired the musical 'The Sound of Music'. In 1955, the von Trapps were hosted by Mother Francesca in the convent in Suva, Fiji while on their last world tour.

The contrast between Kitty’s old and new life was immense.  On one visit home, she and Maura stayed in Nenagh with Chrissie. They had a room facing the street and they “liked nothing better than poking our heads out the window at night and marvelling at the sights and sounds of the street” and hearing the sound of the feet on the pavement and seeing the cars go by.

Kitty's last move was to Australia, and she still lives with the Convent in Melbourne.

Around 1964, on one of her long journeys between Australia and home, Kitty stopped off in New York. There she met Paul and his wife-to-be, Eileen. She spent a very happy afternoon with Eileen who modelled her new wedding dress. Kitty, in her full habit, attracted attention wherever she went. Taxi drivers, bus drivers and tour operators all let them travel and site-see for free; even the local diner gave them a free breakfast. Seeing the effect his sister had, Paul was tempted to keep Kitty with him for a few weeks!

Bridgie

Only 14 when she entered the convent in April 1934, Bridgie and three others, including Mary Leonard from Lorrha and Dympna Darcy from Redwood, travelled to the Ursuline convent at St Chamond in the Loire valley. Having never travelled before, the girls’ itinerary comprised a simple instruction to go to Paris where they would be met at the train station. Bridgie became Soeur Marie du Sacré-Coeur and it would be 12 years before she saw Ireland again. In theory, she was allowed a visit home every seven years, but her first visit was thwarted by WWII and then she was too ill to travel.

Bridgie, May 1940

When Bridgie finally got home in 1946, much had changed at home and so had she. She had left as a young girl, and returned as a respected teacher with a degree in Latin and Philosophy. She also pursued studies in and taught Greek and French philology and was admired for her perfect mastery of the French language. Indeed, in later years on her few visits home, she would marvel at her struggle to remember words in English.

In 1948, she was elected Superior of the community, and remained in this position until 1973 apart from a short six-year period. She struggled to enjoy good health after contracting TB. At one stage, Kitty was allowed to travel to see Bridgie and spent three days with her. She remembers someone had attempted to alleviate Bridgie’s illness by placing red cabbage leaves on her chest, and covering them with a white cloth. While Bridgie recovered, she was too ill to travel home for the family reunion in 1964, and in 1973, she effectively retired and moved to the convent in Monistrol-sur-Loire. She reverted to her birth name and was known thereafter as Soeur Brigitte. She was also the first of the nuns to go without the veil, causing some surprise when she arrived home to Kilregane in “a nice skirt, blouse and crucifix”.

Although she remained fragile healthwise, Bridgie never lost her enthusiasm for life. As a teacher, she was remembered for her sense of fun and engaging in at least one memorable snowball battle with the students. She also developed a passion for rugby and loved watching Ireland playing on television, especially against France. She remained a core member of the community to the end, driving the other nuns around and doing the shopping for the convent. She was also an accomplished embroiderer and talented seamstress, producing dresses, skirts and even bedspreads for members of the community.

Maura

Maura too became a successful teacher and worked in schools and convents in Hull, Middlesbrough, the Lake District and latterly Whitby, Yorkshire. She was extraordinarily intelligent and rose to become principal and head teacher wherever she went, driving new building work and setting up schools. In Hull and Middlesbrough during the war years, she would have been subject to the same rationing and deprivations as everyone else in England. She may have tried to describe some of her observations of life in her letters home, but the letters would arrive with half the words and sentences cut out having been censored by the authorities.

The stress of her work took a toll on her health, but she never lost her quick sense of humour. On visits home, she would revel in being part of the farm again and especially loved looking after the bantam hens, geese and other fowl around the farm.

Teeshie

Teeshie, Sr Ignatius, was the only one of the nuns to remain in Ireland. She moved to Belmullet, then Ballina where she had a long career teaching short-hand and typing to the girls in the secondary school. She was a talented calligrapher and her fondness for board and word games was legendary. Few could beat her at Scrabble and she relished the Crossword in the daily paper. She was very talented with her hands and produced beautiful pieces of lace and crochet. Kitty valued one particular piece of very fine crochet which she brought back to Kew where it was used to cover the ciborium in the chapel.

Read the other chapters in this blog for more:
Introduction & Life on the Farm
The Slevin Boys
The Slevin Girls
Key Dates for the Slevin Family
Acknowledgements