Sister Rosemary McGowan
1931 – 2021
Born: 29th September 1931
Entered Religious Life: 11th July 1960
Died: 30th December 2021
Rosemary Mc Gowan was born on the 29th September 1931 in Glasgow to James and Elizabeth Mc Gowan. She was the first born of ten children. She lived in Scotland until she was nineteen years of age. The family then moved to Ireland. Before she entered she qualified as a Secondary school teacher and also held a Pitman’s shorthand and typing diploma and taught in Eccles Street school for a few years.
Rosemary entered the Religious Sisters of Charity in Milltown on the 11th July 1960 and was received into the Novitiate on the 31st January 1961 receiving the name Sr. Marie Fidelis. She was professed on the 1st February 1963. After her profession she joined the community in Milltown where she taught in the Commercial school from February 1963 until 1965. Most of Rosemary’s life was spent in the field of Education at Second level and as chaplain in two of the Dublin Institutes of Technology. From 1965 -1988 she lived in the following communities and ministered in the schools as Principal: Ballaghaderreen, Harold’s Cross, Mountjoy Street and Basin Lane and also as Local Leader in Basin Lane and Mountjoy Street.
Rosemary lived out the motto of the Congregation “Caritas Christi urget nos” throughout her religious life. She was kind and caring towards the pupils in her care. She had a deep respect for them and wanted them to carve out a better future for themselves, than the one they might have had without education. Her humanity and compassion shone wherever she ministered. There were many tributes paid to her on the RIP website by former staffs and pupils.
In 1988-1990 she was missioned to Harold’s Cross and was appointed chaplain to the Dublin Institute of Technology where she ministered to the staff and pupils. Her work there was greatly appreciated by all in the Diocese and the chaplains from those college attended her funeral. In 1990 she was appointed Local Leader in Crumlin and she continued her ministry as chaplain in DIT. Rosemary was elected as a member of the Provincial Leadership Team in in 1993. She embraced this ministry with great enthusiasm. She lived in Richmond Road at this time and ministered in Bolton Street Institute of Technology. She found this ministry very enriching and often spoke about the many happy years she spent in this role.
Rosemary went on sabbatical in January 2000. It was a wonderful year for her visiting her family in the U. S. and attending Wellsprings Centre of Spirituality for three months. The highlight of her sabbatical was the three months she spent in the Holy Land. She cherished every minute of her time there and she would often speak about her experience there and the impact it had on her life. In fact she loved to talk about the Holy Land up to the time she died.
In 2001 she returned to Ireland after her sabbatical and was appointed Co-ordinator of the newly established Mary Aikenhead Heritage Centre, in Harold’s Cross. This was such a joy to her and she warmly welcomed many, many groups from home and abroad to the centre. In the early years there would be two or three groups visiting the Centre each day. There was always positive feedback from the visitors and many sent thank you cards and letters to say how much they enjoyed their visit. Many visitors would have been past pupils of our schools. She delighted in knowing that Mary Aikenhead’s story and the motto of the Congregation was being kept alive and spreading to many parts of the world. Sr. Rosemary spent nine very happy years ministering in Heritage Centre. During that time Rosemary was appointed non- resident Local Leader in Richmond Road.
In June 2011 she was missioned to Caritas and from there she went to Naomh Bríd where she lived until July 2020. While there, she was engaged in ministry in Gardiner Street and King’s Inn Street school. Her health began to fail and she needed more care. She went to Belmont Nursing Home in July 2020 where she was very content. Unfortunately, this was during the Covid restrictions when visiting was not permitted. This must have been hard on Rosemary and of course on us as her community, and her family and friends but we managed to keep in contact through letters, cards, phone calls and window visits when these were permitted. Rosemary never ceased to marvel at the wonderful care she was receiving and was always so gracious to the staff. They called her “the lovely lady, Sr. Rosemary.” When lockdown was lifted and we visited Rosemary she delighted in pointing out to her visitors the wonderful view she had from her window.
Sr. Rosemary had a deep love for her siblings and their families. She was interested in each one and was very proud of all their achievements. They in turn returned their love and were very attentive to her always. She spent many happy holidays with them and was in constant communication with them.
Rosemary was a very dedicated Sister of Charity. She was blest with a lovely personality. She was a wonderful community Sister, always so cheerful and optimistic. She had a great love of nature and was a wonderful conversationalist.
On the 30th December Sr. Rosemary died unexpectedly but very peacefully in the care of the dedicated staff in Belmont Nursing Home. It was a shock to her family and community. Her Mass was celebrated on the 4th January 2022 in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook. Sr. Una O’ Neill gave a beautiful reflection on her life which was very much appreciated by her family. The condolences on the RIP website described her as a very caring person, a lovely lady and a true daughter of Mary Aikenhead. She was buried in the community cemetery in Donnybrook. May songs of the angels welcome her to Heaven.
We are standing this morning on holy ground: the place where Mary Aikenhead spent the last years of her life as an invalid – a woman whose vision, courage and practical common-sense gave birth to our Congregation and to our long and graced history of service of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.Today we are celebrating the life of Sr. Joseph Helen, a woman who cherished that charism, serving those in need with fidelity and generosity, and who also spent the last years of her life here in the Hospice.
The readings this morning are both comforting and challenging.In the Gospel Jesus speaks of himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life.He invites us to put our hope and our trust in Him and in His promise to be with us, steadily and constantly as we try each day to walk his way, to speak his truth, to live his life.It is an apt description of the life and commitment of the woman whom we are remembering here.
In her 103 years of life, Sr. Joseph Helen lived through historical and global changes that are impossible for us to imagine.She experienced seismic shifts in Church and state.She witnessed wars and famines on a world scale.Through all of those yearsshe remained steadfastly faithful to the constant core of who she was as an RSC.She was born Dorothy Cunningham in Ballacolla in Portlaoise on 1st July 1908. She was an only girl, with one brother, and was much loved by all.Her childhood and youth reflected the calm ordinariness of children’s lives at that time.Following her degree studies she spent some months caring for her mother who was ill and then secured a job teaching in Mountjoy St. School in Dublin.Her father was not impressed!His comment on hearing of that place was:“It doesn’t sound like much of a job but you like working for the poor and you’ve always been good at it”.She remained there until she entered the Sisters of Charity on 5th October 1931.
In the first reading we are told that God gives strength to the wearied; that those who hope in Yahweh will soar like eagles, run and no grow weary, walk and never tire.That was so true of J. Helen throughout her active life.She was missioned back to Mountjoy St. after her religious profession and taught there for 12 years.Following a year’s further study in Scotland, she went to teach in a Secondary Modern school inWalthamstow in England for a year.And then came the call to be one of our three founding Sisters of the Zambian Region, or Northern Rhodesia as it then was.
In 1948 they set sail, travelling for four weeks by boat – The Athlone Castle -rail, bus and lorry before arriving in Chisekesi Siding on a dark morning on 28th October 1948. Sr. Helen kept a diary of the journey which was printed for the 50th anniversary and which gives a fascinating insight into their journey and how they coped with, what was for them, such a strange and almost ‘alien’ environment.
One can only imagine the anticipation and anxiety, the challenge and the loneliness, the wonder and the doubts that marked that journey and her first months in Zambia.It was a place and people that she came to love and cherish.She committed herself to the education of girls and brought the gift of knowledge and freedom to countless women who still remember her with gratitude and appreciation.There are many past pupils with sad hearts in Zambia at the moment – their sadness at her passing tempered only by their gratitude that she is free from the debilities of her age.And that mourning is echoed this morning among our sisters there in the Region and here in this Chapel in the sisters who lived with her and shared her life for those 30 years.
Her first 15 years in Zambia were spent in the Teacher training college run by the Jesuits and began her work in promoting the education of girls – beginning with the setting up of a girls secondary boarding school in Roma in Lusaka.Nine years later she was appointed Regional Leader and on Independence day 1978she was conferred with the Order of Distinguished Service for 30 years of outstanding service to the people of Zambia in the fields of Education and Social work.
While she was a formidable woman in many ways, with high standards and expectations, her devotion to her religious life and her commitment to education was recognized and appreciated by all who knew her.She was a strict disciplinarian, spoke the truth without apology and demanded very high standards.At the same time her heart was compassionate and her generosity and hospitality were known and appreciated by all.
Like all of us, Helen has known suffering and joy, tears and laughter, pain and happiness, loneliness and friendship.And she had strong relationships with herfriends – too numerous to mention – but exemplified in the love and devotion of Sr. Mary Bernadette Collins and Catherine Fallon.Up to the end she valued and enjoyed her relationships with her nieces, nephews and other family members and followed their lives with interest, with love and with prayer.
In 1978 she was missioned to Ireland and worked on our Constitutions.Subsequently she was appointed as local leader to our community in Crumlin before her appointment to our Provincial Leadership team and consequent arrival here in Our Lady’s Mount in 1981.
Sr. J. Helen’s commitment to Mary Aikenhead’s charism was single-minded and she never compromised on that.The second reading confirms her attitude to life:nothing outweighs the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus. It is only through Him, with Him and in Him that we can find life and happiness and fulfilment.Rooted in that conviction, she endorsed and embraced anything that served the people for whom she cared in a better, more dignified or respectful way.
She suffered in her growing debility and weakness these last years and all of us – family, community, friends and colleagues – were saddened as we watched her suffering and her struggle to cope.In spite of the wonderful, caring staff who surrounded her and the sisters and friends who were her constant support,she had difficult and dispiriting days.Yet she never gave up .Her faith in Providence was the touchstone of her life.In the midst of all her pain and letting-go she was confident that he was with her, holding her, comforting her and in the end, calling her to himself.And when that call came, sheyielded her spirit to the Lord, peace-filled, calm and trusting – blest with a death that had no struggle, no pain, no fear.And perhaps I can end with some words of hers, written in the diary of which I spoke, on her arrival in Chikuni:“Now that we have reached our Promised Land we must thank God and Our Lady for our very pleasant and on the whole easy journey which we have had . . . . “Those words echo, not only the journey to Chikuni, but her life journey, now at its end as she moves, we believe, into the fullness of the Promised land of God’s life and love.
