On the afternoon of Saturday, 28th January 60 Sisters gathered in the Mary Aikenhead Day Centre in Donnybrook to celebrate the annual New Year’s Party for our senior Sisters. The afternoon began with a creative Prayer Reflection led by Sr Lorraine McCarthy. This was followed by a delicious high tea which afforded time for old friends to chat and reminisce. Then the entertainment began…
We were serenaded with beautiful music from Noel Carroll on the violin and accompanied by 
Lilian O’Connor on the piano, we all enjoyed a ‘sing-along’ as Noel played a medley of our favourite songs from the past. Some hidden talent in the form of poetry and song was coming from the audience when there was a surprise announcement ……..a prospective candidate had flown in from the States earlier in the day and would love to meet the Sisters at the party! ‘Mandy’ (aka Sr Rosaleen Crossan) arrived with her guitar in a flurry of excitement and entertained us with jokes and song. She was then interviewed by the Director of Novices in the person of Sr Monica Byrne. She was asked many ‘searching’ questions to the great entertainment 
of all present! Finally she was asked if she would be prepared to go anywhere she was sent – Nigeria, Zambia, England, Scotland, Ireland or California. Her excitement grew as each was named and she replied that one of her gifts was that she loved to travel and would just love to go to all of them!! In order to help her in the discernment process Sr Monica asked the Sisters if they deemed Mandy suitable for our Congregation. This posed a problem as we were not used to such a trendy candidate! But all finally agreed that she would bring much needed new life to the Province!
To imitate a well known television programme, there was then a gift “for everyone in the audience”. The song “At the End of the Day”, sung by Sr Bernadette Maria, brought a very enjoyable afternoon to a close.
