This article is from page 8 of the 2009-02-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
PEOPLE in north Clare are mourn- ing this week following the news that Annette O’Dea, otherwise known as Sr Ann-Marie, has passed away in California.
Sr Ann-Marie, who hails from Ballygannor just outside Kilfenora, celebrated the golden jubilee of her
vocation, along with her twin sis- ter Philomena O’Dea (Sr Celine) in 2005.
Having spent most of the previous 50 years in separate religious institu- tions, the sisters were together when Sr Ann-Marie passed away in San Diego, a number of weeks ago.
The twins were born in Ballygan- nor in 1936 and went to school in Kil-
fenora National School and then at the Mercy Convent in Gort. In 1955, aged just 19, they joined the nuns in Mallow following the sudden death of their mother, Lilly. They left be- hind in Ballygannor their father John and 11 brothers and sisters, including Kitty, who later gained fame with the Kilfenora Ceili Band.
After spending six months in Cork,
the twins were moved to London where they were officially welcomed into the nuns in separate ceremonies. They qualified as nurses and served in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales before Sr Ann-Marie was di- agnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and both sisters were allowed to move to a warmer climate in America.
In all their years as Nazareth House nuns, they have never been based in the same convent and only see each other on holidays.
Sr Celine first returned to Ireland in the 1960s and gained national prominence when a story of the kindness she showed towards teen- age mother Wanda Machnicha and her son made front page news in