Sr Mary Bartholomew
Photo:The Irish News Róise McGagh
A nun from Co. Down who took her vows in 1942 recently celebrated her 100th birthday in Port Elizabeth.
Sr Mary Bartholomew was sent to South Africa at the beginning of World War II. Her five nieces flew from Leitrim to join her for the celebration.
Growing up in Leitrim, Sr Mary, born Philomena Cunningham, and her older sister Mary Bernadette attended Sacred Heart Grammar School in Newry. They were some of the first to play camogie in the area before a team was set up by the Fontenoy’s GAA club. Both went on to become nuns. Sr Mary entered the Assumption Convent in Ballynahinch. She was on the Warwick Castle as a postulant, “the last passenger ship to sail to the continent (of Africa) for many years”, said her niece, Mary McAleen.
She spent her life teaching and on her retirement she helped open a clinic and pre-school for refugees fleeing the Mozambique war.
Sr Mary wrote a book detailing her time in Drumgooland parish. She had not returned to Ireland since her sister Eileen was seriously ill “some years ago”, said her nieces.
The day after her centenary, the Missionary Sisters of the Assumption celebrated 170 years since the first sisters arrived in in Port Elizabeth in 1849.