Sr. Ethel Normoyle was born in Lissycasey in Co. Clare in 1944. In 1963 she joined the Little Company of Mary, where she trained as a nurse and in 1972 went to work in Pretoria, South Africa. This mission was during the height of apartheid, the official system of race segregation where the colour of one’s skin defined his or her human rights. Sr. Ethel, a young, white, Irish woman living in a black township challenged this system of oppression and discrimination, by providing education for young black youths. As a result, she was harassed, beaten and arrested by police and experienced an attempted kidnapping. She then moved to Eastern Cape and in 1988 founded the Missionvale Care Centre, to ensure quality care and support to improve the lives of the people of Missionvale township.
‘Sr. Stan’ as we all know her, was born Treasa Kennedy in 1939, near Lispole on the Dingle Peninsula. Determined to work with the poor and disadvantaged, she joined the Religious Sisters of Charity when she was 18 years old. Working initially in Kilkenny, she helped establish Kilkenny Social Services and co-founded the National Federation of Youth Clubs, CARE and the School of Education in Kilkenny in the 1970s. In 1997 she was appointed to the Council of State and served on it until 2004.
Joyce Robarts was born in India and later moved to Ireland after being professed as a Sister of Christian Education. In October 1957 she became Principal of the newly established Our Lady’s Boarding School in Rathnew, County Wicklow. Sr. Joyce viewed education as a human right for all and encouraged a broad education that was focused on social justice, empowering students, sisters and teachers to: “Make this world a better place because you are in it”.
Sr. Miriam, a native of County Limerick Ireland entered the Franciscan Missionaries for Africa religious order in 1956. She graduated from University College Cork (UCC) with a degree in Medicine in 1964. Miriam studied Obstetrics in Birmingham UK, receiving her Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG) in 1969 and received a Fellowship in Obstetrics & Gynaecology (FRCOG) in 1982. In 1969, Miriam moved to Uganda in East Africa and was one of the first qualified obstetricians in the country. She spent the next 30 years working at St Francis Hospital Nsambya in the capital city of Kampala.
Sr. Cyril Mooney was born in Bray, Co. Wicklow in 1936. She joined the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (ibvm), the Loreto Sisters, and in 1956 moved to India, where she worked until her death in 2023. Sr. Cyril is widely known and respected throughout India as a pioneer of quality education and support services for children from poor rural and urban backgrounds. In 1979 she became principal of the Loreto Day School at Sealdah, Kolkata. During her time there she transformed and expanded the school to ensure access for students from lower-caste and socially deprived backgrounds.
Sr. Consilio was born in 1937 in Brosna, Co. Kerry. She trained as a nurse at the North Infirmary, Cork and in 1959 joined the Sisters of Mercy in Athy, Co. Kildare. She later trained as a midwife at St. Finbarr’s Hospital, Cork. As a young religious Sister, she worked as a nurse in St. Vincent’s Hospital Athy, which at the time was a ‘County Home’. It was during this time that Sr. Consilio encountered homeless men who accessed County Homes as night shelters. She was moved by the struggles that the men were facing and soon recognised that in many cases, their situation was perpetuated as a result of their addiction to alcohol. In response, in 1966 she established Cuan Mhuire in a room in the Convent of Mercy Athy, Co. Kildare, to support those suffering from alcohol addiction.
The eldest of 12 siblings, Mary Martin was born Marie Martin, in 1892 in Glenageary, County Dublin, Ireland. During World War I in 1914, when she was 22 years old, she began a three-month training course at the Richmond Hospital in Dublin as a Voluntary Aid Detachment, preparing to nurse wounded soldiers. A year later she was sent to Malta to work in St. George’s Military Hospital and then to France, to care for the wounded during the horrific Battle of the Somme that lasted for 147 days. It was here that she gained experience in nursing young men with gas gangrene and poisoning and skin diseases like scabies and impetigo. After her 25th birthday, Marie told her boyfriend that marriage was not for her and trained as a midwife at the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in Dublin. In 2021, she sailed for Nigeria to work as a lay volunteer.