Our Trip Down Memory Lane this month brings us to the Cork and Ross Mission to Kenya. This article was first published in Mercy Live Newspaper in June 2004. Sadly, Srs. Teresita Nolan (RIP – 28th April, 1991), Augustine Gleeson (RIP – 9th September, 1992), De Montfort (Emma) Maloney (RIP – 25th January, 2000), Juliana Kennedy (RIP – 30th August, 2005), Borgia Curtin (RIP – 20th April, 2012), Mary Annunciata Harnett (RIP – 29th March, 2015), Rosetta Gray (RIP – 17th January, 2018), Annunciata Desmond (RIP – 12th July, 2019, have all gone to their heavenly reward. Maura (Colombiere) Nagle and Margaret Mary Ryan are both back living in Cork. Louise Roche still lives in Kenya where she is working on a disability project and recently with street boys overseeing building construction and repairs. Margaret Twomey returned in 2012 and is living in Tipperary where she is a Cluster Leader.
The Cork and Ross Mission to Kenya 1964 – 1995
The late Bishop Joseph Houlihan was Bishop of Eldoret. His diocese at that time was immense and included what are now five dioceses. He had just opened a mission in Eldama Ravine and needed sisters to start a hospital there. He went to Cork, approached the late Bishop, Cornelius Lucy, who directed him to St. Marie’s of the Isle, where he would surely be lucky in his quest. Bishop Houlihan was further heartened by the aspiration “Go dtaga do Ríocht” (Your Kingdom Come), on a pedestal of the statue of the Sacred Heart at the gate of St. Aloysius school, opposite the convent. That was on 16th March, 1963, and that evening, the eve of St. Patrick himself, the Bishop was promised Sisters.
Sisters Teresita Nolan and Borgia Curtin were chosen, and they set off for Kenya on 31st August 1964. The convent and hospital were just being built, so they worked in the War Memorial Hospital in Eldoret until 7th October, 1965. Fr. Tony Prunty SPS, the first resident priest in Eldama, welcomed them. Nothing was really finished, but however, they set to work and put the hospital, now called Mercy Hospital, in order. On 11th October, Sr. Augustine Gleeson joined them, and Sr. Borgia Curtin was sent to the War Memorial Hospital in Nakuru, so as to earn a salary which would help in the running of the hospital. Outpatients began in January 1966, and Mobile Clinics in February. Sister Columbiere Nagle joined the hospital team in 1966. The Sisters met with a lot of opposition from the A.I.M. (American Inland Missionaries or Southern Baptists) but “with prayer, patience and perseverance they overcame the obstacles”. Many Cork Sisters and volunteer Mercy Sisters worked in Mercy Hospital, as well as German, Italian, Mexican, Ugandan, Kenyan and Irish doctors and lay nurses.
The next part of the programme for the Sisters was the establishment of a Primary school. Sr. de Montfort Moloney (Emma) took on that challenge. The school was a second stream to an existing Catholic-sponsored school 2km away. Sr. de Montfort taught there until 1972, when it became a secondary school called Eldama Ravine Girls’ High School. In the intervening years, eight classrooms were built for the primary pupils elsewhere. Sr. Emma taught there until she took up the teaching of the new programme in CRE (Christian Religious Education) in the secondary school. She had previously studied that course in GABA University (Uganda). Srs. Juliana Kennedy and Annunciata Desmond taught in the secondary school from the beginning.
Another Mercy convent and clinic started in Njoro in 1980. The Chairman of the County Council of Njoro, during a visit to Cork, made a special request for sisters to run a Health Centre in Njoro. The sisters would work in conjunction with the Ministry of Health. Funds to build the Health Centre were given by Misereor (German Bishops’ Development Agency). In the meantime, politics changed, the County Council of Njoro was dissolved, and Njoro came under the Nakuru County Council. The previous arrangements (re: Sisters working in the Health Centre) were changed, and the result was that the Sisters could not work in the Centre, since they were too highly qualified. Only enrolled nurses and clinical officers were required. However, as a special concession they were allowed to operate two specified mobile clinics. These were operated from Mercy Hospital until Srs. Augustine and Mary Harnett (Cloyne) went to live in Njoro in 1980. Sr. Margaret Mary Ryan came from Ireland to join them, and taught in Njoro Boys’ High School. Sr. Rosetta Gray (Limerick) came later to do pastoral work in the area. Very soon, requests for other mobile clinics were received, and the clinics grew and were recognised by the Ministry.
Annunciata Desmond and one of the teachers
In 1992, Eldama Ravine Girls’ High School was handed over to a lay headmistress chosen by the diocese. In 1993, the Mercy Hospital was handed over to Theresian Sisters.
While Sr. Annunciata was helping out in Kakuma Boys’ Secondary School (Lodwar diocese), and Sr. Margaret Twomey was assisting in Kakuma Hospital, a request for Sisters was sent to Ireland by Bishop Mahon of Lodwar diocese and a Comboni priest, Fr. Daniel Villaverde. There were no Sisters in Lokori, an area of 100 km sq., where children were dying from ordinary diseases due to lack of medical care. Cork answered the call and in January 1994 Srs. Margaret Twomey and Annunciata Desmond started to work there. Sr. Louise Roche joined them later in that year.
Annunciata Desmond lives and works in Lokori, Kenya
Annunciata Desmond
Southern Province
