Dominican nun, educational and filmmaking ‘pioneer’ dies at 106

An Irish Dominican nun, described as an “educational pioneer” and “award-winning filmmaker” has died at the age of 106.

Sr Maureen MacMahon joined the Irish Congregation of Dominican Sisters in 1936 and went on to innovate in both educational and filmmaking realms.

Commenting after Sr MacMahon’s death, Fr Conor McDonough OP said that the nun was “an educational pioneer, among the first to be trained in the child-centred Froebel method, which she, and other Cabra sisters, went on to propagate. She was an award-winning amateur film-maker too, in the late 60s and early 70s. One of her films, Kay (1968), explores the artistic output of a 6th-year student in Sion Hill, Kay Lavelle”.

Sr MacMahon was born in Rathgar in 1918. She entered the Irish Congregation of Dominican Sisters at Cabra in 1936, officially professing in 1938.

In 1943, she was admitted to the Dominican Froebel College of Education in Sion Hill, which had been established that year by the Dominican Sisters to educate potential national school teachers in the Froebel model of education.

Her film, Kay, went on to win the National Film Institute of Ireland’s Amateur Cine Competition in 1968.

Her funeral took place yesterday in Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Booterstown Avenue, Dublin.