21 August 2024
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
A woman who grew up in the Cork and Ross diocese has become the most recently professed religious sister in Ireland.
Sr. Máire Bríd O’Driscoll made her Solemn Profession as a Redemptoristine nun in the company of her community, family and friends at a monastery in Drumcondra, Dublin.
Sr. Máire Brid is a daughter of Pat and Ina O’Driscoll, Gortaleen, Enniskeane, and attended Coppeen National School and Mary Immaculate College, Dunmanway, before training as a primary school teacher.
After a few years teaching she explored whether she had a religious vocation and was drawn to the contemplative life of the Sisters of the Holy Redeemer (Redemptoristines) with whom she began a period of exploration and then formation as a Sister.
Concelebrated Mass was celebrated at the monastery on Saturday during which she made her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience before the Prioress of the community Sr. Gabrielle.
Her parents, extended family, relations and friends travelled from Cork and her brother Seamus travelled from New York and all the visitors were treated to hospitality by the Sisters after the special Mass.
After the Solemn Profession are her family: (L to R) her brother Pádraig and baby Analise O’Driscoll, Zoe O’Driscoll, mother of the new Nun Ina, Sr. Máire Bríd herself, brother of the new nun Seamus, her father Patrick and sister Siobhán O’Driscoll. Sr. Máire Bríd is from Gortaleen in Enniskeane Parish, West Cork.
Sr. Maire Bríd with extended family, including aunts and uncles and one of her nieces.