Sister Marie O’Kelly

I recently joined about half of the remaining Brigidine Sisters at Malvern to farewell Sister Marie O’Kelly. Marie was the oldest living past Captain of Kilbreda, holding that position 77 years ago in 1946. In her matric year, she was Kilbreda’s top student in History. On leaving school, she joined the Brigidines, being professed as Sister Immaculata, returning to teach at Kilbreda in 1972. Marie was a long serving staff member at Killester in Springvale and was a devoted teacher of new arrivals who came from the nearby Midway Hostel.

When I came to Kilbreda as a teacher of English as a Second Language, I would often meet Marie at professional development sessions. Later, when Marie took charge of the Brigidine Archives in Malvern, our paths crossed again. Marie was diligent in all she did and, as I recounted at her Rosary recently, she was so protective of her archives that you’d probably have more chance of getting something out of the Vatican Archives than Marie’s collection! Her sister Josephine was Captain of Kilbreda in 1956 and brother Father John O’Kelly prepared me and my dear wife for our marriage 33 years ago at Iona in Gippsland.

Bruce Oglethorpe

On 27 April, the life of Mr Bruce Oglethorpe, former President of our Parents and Friends Association , was celebrated at OLA Cheltenham. Bruce’s six daughters attended the College in the 1970s and 1980s. Melinda, who went to school with me at OLA later worked in the Kilbreda office. Later generations of the family, including the van Veenendaals and Sutherlands, belong to this family.

Archbishop Mannix

Ninety years ago on 7 May, an interesting episode in Kilbreda’s history occurred. Archbishop Mannix, always one to draw a crowd, came to Kilbreda to celebrate Mass and then officially open the ‘new’ boarder’s dormitories and classrooms which were part of the colonnade building, officially known as ‘St Benedict’s Wing’. The interesting part was that he building was not new at all, but had been in use for parts of six years. As expected, the crowd followed Mannix’s lead when he put his hand in his pocket to donate the considerable sum of £20, towards the building. This had been a carefully thought-out plan between former Principal, Mother Berchmans Foley (Mannix’s cousin) and the popular Archbishop. I have no doubt Mother Margaret Mary had a hand in it, too. In the years following its construction, not only did the world fall into the ‘Great Depression’, but St Pat’s, Mentone moved to new premises where it currently is, leaving the former church to Kilbreda as a hall. It was not gifted, however, and resulted in the nuns being shouldered with a considerable and insurmountable debt.

The College Annual of 1933 includes a list of hundreds who contributed, thus decreasing ‘their heavy financial burden’ considerably. ‘The appeal was followed by the activities of energetic collectors, band music heightening the spirit of generosity among the throng’.

Damian Smith
Archives