TRIBUTES were paid this week to Limerick’s oldest resident, Sr Patricia ‘Patty’ O’Neill, who was described by her friends as an “amazing” nun.
She passed away in her 109th year on New Year’s Eve.
Sr O’Neill, of Catherine McAuley House, Old Dominic Street, Limerick, formerly of Bracknagh, Rathangan, County Kildare, passed away in the loving care of the Sisters of Mercy and staff at Catherine McAuley Nursing Home.
Many tributes were paid online to the popular nun, including by Sr Anne Doyle, who posted: “May Sr Patricia rest in peace. She lived a long and amazing life.”
“Her trips to Carlow to visit her sister were some of my memories of her. My sympathy to all who mourn her passing especially her family and Limerick sisters.”
Other friends shared fond memories of Sr O’Neill, saying she would be “missed dearly”.
“She was a lovely lady, may she rest in peace now after enjoying a very long and fruitful life, with all her loved ones gone before her,” one mourner wrote in an online book of condolences.
A Dublin-based fellow Sister of Mercy said: “May Sr Patricia enjoy her well-deserved reward in heaven. What an amazing age to live to be – a living history. What a different world she has lived through.”
Born in 1917, watching on as the country heralded in independence, Sr O’Neill celebrated her 108th birthday last November.
Friends recalled Sr O’Neill’s “positive” attitude to life and wonderful sense of humour, a lady who loved to travel and help others.
Sr O’Neill was the last of her loving and wide family, including her predeceased parents Laurence and Anna Stella (née Campion), brothers Edward and Sean, sister Francie, uncle Fr Campion (Kildare and Leighlin Diocese), and her nieces Sr Áine, Eilish, and Colette.
After reposing and prayers at Griffin’s Funeral Home, John’s Gate, on January 2, Sr O’Neill was laid to rest at St Mary’s Convent Cemetery following funeral mass St Mary’s Church, Athlunkard Street, on January 3.