Sister Íde Woulfe, one of a family of five who all took holy orders, has died in Belfast months short of her 100th birthday. She was also just short of 79 years of membership of the St Louis order of nuns.
Her late sister Agatha had been a member of the Sisters of the Holy Rosary, and her three brothers, Con, Micheál and Risteard, all became members of the Holy Ghost order, latterly known as the Spiritans.
She was the last surviving child of Catherine and Richard Woulfe of Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick and a niece of Conn Colbert, who was executed for his part in the 1916 Rising.
Honora Josephine Woulfe was old enough to remember the Black and Tans threatening to shoot her father, and burning down the family pharmacy in Abbeyfeale, forcing the family to flee.
Tomboy
Boarding at St Louis in
Monaghan
she gained the reputation of being something of a tomboy. In 1936 she was professed as a nun, taking the name Sister Íde.
She began teaching in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, then in Baal in Co Mayo. In 1946 she was appointed assistant mistress of novices in Monaghan. But her real calling was to the missionary life.
The woman who lived to be almost 100 was four times refused a missionary posting on health grounds, but after training as a nurse and midwife she was finally sent to Ghana, where she ran a hospital.
After the second Vatican Council, when rules about the wearing of habits were relaxed, she was concerned about younger sisters going off the rails. She remained protective of the old ways and all her life continued to wear the religious veil while working in a public capacity.
After a short time nursing in Nigeria, Sr Íde spent a year on sabbatical in California where she trained as a hospital chaplain. It was a golden opportunity for her to reconnect with her brother Micheál.
She was then posted as chaplain to Belfast City Hospital. In what passed for retirement she visited sick and elderly people in their homes. "My little old ladies", she called them, though many were younger than her.
Hers was a long life of service, just one in a family of servants of a higher calling. She is buried in Hannahstown, Co Antrim.