Past Pupil Brigidines on Staff

Kilbreda has had many past pupils return as members of staff over 120 years. A number of those, from the very early days, have been Brigidine sisters. The most notable exception from the board which celebrates this in the Mary Dalton Hall, is Mother Margaret Mary Bourke. ‘Mother Marg’ as she was affectionately known by some, appears in the College register in 1908, shortly after her arrival from Ireland. In her handwritten notes, she tells us that she arrived in Melbourne on July 16, 1908. Our register records her as starting on July 28 alongside Katherine Scott (later Mother Bonaventure). Brigid Bourke had already studied extensively in Europe and was what was referred to as a ‘parlour boarder’. For that reason, she is never mentioned as a past pupil.

Our first two to join the novitiate, here in Mentone, were Katie Nihill and Teresa Sheedy, who went on to become Mothers Winifride and Genevieve, coming back to teach here in the 1920s. Mother Winifride died here too, and pupils from 1967 will recall filing past her coffin in St Brigid’s Chapel to pay their last respects. Genevieve was professed in 1918 at Malvern and Winifride in 1915 at Mentone, only four years after coming to Mentone as a boarder from Tongala.

It was not until the 1940s that the next old girl joined our teaching staff, in the person of my former colleague, Mother Mercedes (Madge) Brown. Madge was a contemporary of my grandmother, having been in the same class as my aunt Rosie in the 1920s. Madge (Lucy Magdalen) was professed in 1936 at Malvern and was an and off staff member here until the 1990s, spending some years as Principal of OLA Cheltenham.

In the 1950s Kilbreda welcomed back Frances Teresa (Carmel) Evans and Mother Theophane Farley who were professed in 1945 and 1926. Marie Farley and her sister Margaret were boarders from Derrinal, joining the boarding school in 1912.

Three pupils from the 1950s, Margaret Cassidy, Reba Woodwiss and Pauline O’Callaghan, were professed in 1960, 1959 and 1958 respectively. All three were popular with Kilbreda pupils, injecting vitality into their old school in various ways. Margaret (Consolata) and Pauline (Paulette) have died in recent years, while Reba is still a semi-regular visitor to Kilbreda.

In the 1970s, two former College Captains joined the staff, Srs Marie O’Kelly and Roch Allman. Marie had been captain in 1946 and Moya in 1933 and 1934. Marie was Province Archivist for a time and Sr Roch was also Principal at OLA, until 1973.

Five Brigidines came back to Kilbreda in the 1980s, Sr Angela Ryan, who had been in the class of 1955, returned as Principal in 1981, leaving again to become Provincial. The others were Sr Loretta Brennan, a local vocation, who had been part of the Motor Mission and has just returned after 20 years in Nairobi, Kenya. Loretta was professed as Sr Marina in 1960. Maureen O’Sullivan had been a pupil here in the 1930s with Moya, and was professed as Sr Elizabeth in 1949. Sr Margaret Underwood was professed as Sr Luke in 1955 at Malvern, is not to be confused with long term staff member, her sister-in-law Margaret Underwood, sister of Sr Angela and formerly Sr Petra. Sr Margaret passed away in 1994. The last, but no means least, was the wonderfully vibrant Sr Denise Allen, one of five Allen sisters, who finished here in 1957. Sadly, of course, our plaque by the chapel shows that Sr Denise passed away while on staff here in 2012.

Damian Smith
Archives