The last Irish nuns in Africa: ‘There was no question of going home. I was going to the missions’
Sister Ailbe, an Irish nun who moved to Senegal in 1965, reflects on her decades of missionary work and the development of local schools. She remains one of the few Irish sisters still serving in the region, viewing her commitment as a lifelong covenant.
Why it matters
It highlights the fading legacy of the Irish missionary tradition and the historical role of religious orders in providing education and social services in developing nations.
A t 22 years old, Sister Ailbe, from Co Tipperary , packed her bags and embarked on a steamer to west Africa in 1965. After five days she arrived in Dakar, Senegal , before boarding a train across the Sahelian plains towards Bamako.
She remembers a “feeling of panic, being lost and thinking: ‘Where am I going’?” As the crowded train pulled into the remote town of Tambacounda in 45 degree heat, the young Irish woman stepped into her new reality.
Pointing to the entrance of the town convent, she says: “I walked through those gates and fainted.” The heat has become bearable over the decades since her arrival, she says.
Beaming, she waves to a group of young Senegalese children who pass through the gates on their way to the school and calls “Salut” in the Tipperary accent she has retained.
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