RIP: Longford nun leaves us with the memories of her legacy of work in Pakistan and Enniskillen

It's with great sadness and regret that we record the death of Sr Briege Reynolds which occurred suddenly on Thursday, April 17 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. 

Sr Briege was born at Graffogue Moatfarrell in the parish of Granard, Co Longford in 1947 one of eleven children of Katleen MacNamara & Patrick Reynolds.

She attended Clonbroney NS where one of her teachers was Master Tom Connolly, brother of Comd Sean Connolly killed in action at Sefton Hill in Leitrim during the War of Independence. Her main church during her youth was Clonbroney Church where she had her First Communion and her Confirmation. 

Clonbroney was one of the first convent monasteries in Ireland founded around 440AD and active until up to the time of the Normans.

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Sr Briege attended Cnoc Mhuire in Granard for her five years of secondary schooling where her older Sr Kathleen and her older brother Terence attended.

She went on to join the Presentation sisters in Baileborough, Co Cavan to which she was to give the rest of her working life in Pakistan and in later years in Enniskillen.

Remembering Sr Briege in his eulogy, her brother Pat Reynolds said, “Today we come to honour her 60 years work in the vineyards of the Lord, a life well lived. We do not mourn but are struck by her sudden unexpected death. The train of life passes our door every day and one day we step on that train that takes up away from mortal life to another world.

“In the old Gaelic Celtic world death is not the end, we are a River Flowing towards the Sea of Eternity, we are the spirits of our ancestors who are here with us today and there to greet Sr Biege on her journey. Sr Briege leaves us her remaining family with many memories of our childhood growing up in Co Longford, while after returning from Pakistan she was able to spend some time in the USA with Sr Kathleen.

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“Her lifelong legacy was to the children of Pakistan where she spent 35 years teaching and serving in a number of cities from Lahore, Rawalpindi to Peshawar. I remember a story she told me of how she tried to get education for the girls in Pakistan where some of the Tribal leaders were reluctant to send their girls to school. She persuaded many of them to send the girls to school where she would teach them skills from dress making to cooking, and but quietly she was teaching them reading and writing skills.  One of the Tribal chiefs used to visit each month to see how things were going. 

“Sr Briege always had the girls knitting when he appeared with their reading books just put away. On the third visit the Chief stated, ‘Every time I come here the girls are always knitting, I want the girls to have a broader education, you must take them down to the kitchen today and teach them some cooking’.

“Here you find Sr Briege lifting the spirit of the Hedge schools of Ireland to teach an excluded group the basics of education. The Hedge school in Ireland grew out of the Penal laws of the late 1690 which banned education for Catholics in Ireland.

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“Later Sr Briege would act as Chaplain at Moyne Community school which came from the old Latin school there which itself had come from the local Hedge schools there.

“In joining the Presentation Sisters who had an organic link with school education in Granard from the 1870’s, she was completing the circle. Sr followed a family tradition of giving to the Church as we find both mother’s family and father’s family all had relatives who had given service. Briege had the history of Fr Terry Reynolds, her uncle who spent his life working in Australia and is buried in the Fiji Islands, and of her older Sr Kathleen who went to work for the Church in the USA. Even in Penal times we find priests named Reynolds working with the people and as far back as Henry 8th a Fr James Reynolds was sent to Rome where he died to plead with the Pope to excommunicate Henry.

“In our family the women were far more adventurous than the men as often happens in Irish families. Our own mother Kathleen had worked in London as a servant girl for a Jewish family back in1938 and while Sr Katheen and Briege both went abroad to work for the Church, Rose also spent a number of years working in Kenya for the people.

“I tell you another story about Briege. She came to spend some time in London after her return from Pakistan and I took her to the Asian part of Southall to look at the Asian shops here. We visited one Pakistani owned store with carpets and carved goods for sales, after spending some time in the shop one of the workers said in Urdu ‘This silly old white woman will look at everything and buy nothing’ Briege informed me. She kept her patience and after buying a present for a friend, she told the shopkeeper in fluent Urdu on leaving that he should show more respect for his female and community elders among his customers. The look on the shopkeeper's face stayed with me, but she had calmly protested the rights of women and the elderly in such a calm manner.

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“After her return from Pakistan she retrained herself in Counselling and Therapy. I had the honour of attending her Graduate Award ceremony in London at the Middlesex University where on the same day I had some social work students of mine graduating.

“She returned to work in Enniskillen and to teach at Omagh College and carry out voluntary work at Loch Derg not knowing when to stop.

“My belief in life is that to lead a good life you need to follow the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. Even if we only carried out one of these, we are leading a good life ‘I was hungry and you fed me, I was in prison and you visited me. Sr Briege lived many of these things in her long life of service to the people and especially to children.

“I say again we are not here to mourn but to celebrate a life well lived. For us the lesson is to try and follow her example of devotion to others. She goes to that reunion of those family members who went before her Mammy, Daddy, Patrick, John, Charlie, Terence and Bernie. It is a family we will all rejoin one day.

“I remember one day my late mother discussing life, when she stated ‘You will not be remembered for what you accumulate in life but what you give away to others.’ Briege gave her everything to others and it is thus that we remember her, for the lifelong work for the children of Pakistan and those in Enniskillen. A life of service to the Lord, her church and her People.

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“Remember her life as a long-fulfilled life of 60 years work in the service of others.

“Today it is time for her to rest from her labours. In going she leaves us with the memories of her legacy of work in Pakistan and Enniskillen. May she rest eternally in Peace.”

Sr Briege was predeceased by her siblings Patrick, John, Bernie Charlie and Terry and she is survived by her sisters Sr Kathleen, Rose Reynolds and Mary Corcoran, Ballymore and her brothers Peter and Pat to whom we offer our sincere sympathy at this sad time. 

Sr Briege's remains reposed in Portadown on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning, April 23  she made her final journey home to her native Graffoge and Parish of Granard where her funeral Mass was celebrated by Fr Simon Cadam and she was laid to rest in Granardkille new cemetery. 

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