An Armagh woman who served in Ethiopia with the Medical Missionaries of Mary for over 20 years has passed away.
Sr. Mairead Gorman, who had also worked in Tanzania and Uganda for a time, passed away in the Aras Mhuire Nursing Home on February 11 after a long illness.
In the later years of her life, she was working in the office of the Aras Mhuire Nursing Home, where she ended up moving for full-time nursing care in May 2022 as her health needs increased.
In a tribute posted to social media yesterday, the Medical Missionaries of Mary filled in the blanks on what was an extraordinary life of service lived by Sr. Mairead.
Baptised Bridget, she was born in Armagh in February 1931, going to school locally and concentrating on secretarial skills, before going on to study in Belfast.
She then worked for seven years as a shorthand typist and telephonist, eventually deciding to join the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1957.
She took the name Mairead in 1959 after making a profession of vows, going on to work in the convent office in Drogheda for ten years.
Her first overseas assignment was to Uganda in 1968, where she stayed for three years. She then asked to study for nursing and returned to London to study at the North London School of Nursing and then to study midwifery in Drogheda.
Sr. Mairead was then assigned to Tanzania for two years after qualifying, before moving on to Ethiopia.
She stayed in Ethiopia for over twenty years – a place where she said she “left her heart”.
She also took on leadership roles and stayed in Ethiopia until the Medical Missionaries of Mary withdrew from the country in 2010.
Returning to Ireland, she lived in Ashleigh Heights, Drogheda for several years before moving to the Motherhouse in 2017.
A death notice for Sr. Mairead says she was predeceased by her parents James and Mary Ellen, her brothers Packie and Murty, her sisters Annie Therese, Mary Catherine and Elizabeth.
She is sadly missed by her devoted nephews and nieces and their families, her relatives and friends and her Medical Missionaries of Mary community.
Her Funeral Mass will take place on Thursday, February 15, at 11am in the Convent, Beechgrove, followed by burial in St. Peter’s Cemetery.
You can view Sr. Mairead’s Funeral Mass on Thursday at 11am by clicking here.
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