On
Sunday 11 December
2005 Sister Ida
O'
Leary died in the St. John of
God Convent, Wexford at the age of 92. She was known to the hundreds of
students and seminarians who
passed through St. Peter's
College from 1958 to 1987,
where she was in charge of
I
the catering department.
.
| One
of the ten children of
Michael and Maire
O'
I Leary of Cul Aodha in the
Cork Gaeltacht, she was born there in 1913 and was
a native Irish speaker. In
fact, her uncle, Donnchadh
O' Laoghaire,
taught Irish and French in St. Peter's
from 1915 to 1941, so she I
was not the first member of her family to be associated with the
College. When she left school she worked for some years before joining the Sisters of St. John of God in 1940. She made her First Profession in 1942, and took her final vows in 1945. After her First Profession, Sister Ida began her apostolate as a religious. Apart from the two years she spent as Bursar in Cahercalla Hospital, Ennis, all her work was in catering. This took her to many places, including St John's Hospital, Enniscorthy; St Columba's Hospital, Thomastown; Ushaw College, Durham, England; Good Counsel College, New Ross; St. Kieran's College, Kilkenny; and St Peter's College, Wexford, from 1947 to 1958 to 1987, when she retired. . |
 |
| I first met Sister Ida
when I came to St. Peter's College in 1967, and I never ceased to marvel
at the amount of work she did. At the time she had over 400 persons to
feed each day during the school year, as well as being in charge of the
kitchen staff. She also had to deal with bursars, who were usually more
interested in economy than gastronomy! Sister Ida quietly and calmly
coped with all, with no word of complaint, no thought of herself or her
rights, or what she had to endure. She just got on with the job, making no fuss or trouble for anybody. Yet though she did so much and did it so well, she was no "workaholic". For her, work was not an end in itself, and she wasn't driven by stress and tension. She was so successful in her work precisely because she put God first. No matter how busy she was, her spiritual exercises were never omitted. She was always faithful to her daily Mass, meditation, Rosary and the reading of God's word. Her Bible was a much used book, with many cards and bits of paper marking her favourite Scripture passages. Time and again I witnessed her praying the Stations of the Cross. She knew that faith, like fire, needs to be fuelled, and that the fuel for faith is prayer. Retirement brought her more time for prayer. It also gave her the opportunity to practice her hobbies of handcrafts, embroidery, sewing, knitting and tapestry, at which she excelled. Sister Ida has earned the gratitude of all who were privileged to know her kindness, gentleness, dedication and her wonderful example of Christian loving and living according to the Gospel. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam. |