Julia Tully, daughter of James Tully and Julia Kevaney was born in Killeenduff, Easkey, Co. Sligo on the 19th August 1932. She entered the Religious Sisters of Charity on the 30th June 1952 and was received into the Noviciate on the 21st January 1953, receiving the name of Sr Mary Malachy. She made her First Profession on 26th January 1955.
During her sixty-seven years of professed life, Sr Malachy ministered in the following communities: Benada, Stanhope Street, Roma, Chikuni, Elm Park, Donnybrook, St Vincent’s Cork, Lakelands and from there she retired to St Monica’s. In June 2020, needing full-time care, Sr Malachy moved to Marian House Nursing Home, Glasnevin, where she spent two very happy years. Malachy died there peacefully on 5th November 2022 after a very short illness.
Sr Malachy was blessed with a very warm, loving personality. Anyone she met was made feel special – as if they were the most important person in the world. She maintained long-lasting friendships with people she met in the past and this was evident at the turn-out to her funeral. Her past-pupils from Zambia never forgot her and stated that she moulded them into the people they are today.
A key word which would sum up Malachy’s attitude to life was Acceptance. Malachy accepted every assignment as coming from God and she always maintained great peace by accepting everyone regardless of their personality.
Malachy was a woman of deep prayer and commitment. Jesus was the centre of her life and this was evident above all in her devotion to the Mass. She also had a deep love for Our Lady and the daily rosary and she made several pilgrimages to Fatima.
Malachy was very close to her family and they to her. She loved visiting them and in later years delighted in going to her family home in Easkey, Co Sligo, where great family reunions happened.
Malachy’s sense of gratitude was strong and constant. The phrases, “Thank you” and “You’re so good” were forever on her lips. Small wonder that she endeared herself to the staff in the Nursing Home and when she died, they paid wonderful tributes to her among which was: “Sr Malachy was the most beautiful person I ever met in the whole of my life” and another stated that Malachy would be greatly missed as she was a gift to the Nursing Home from day one.