Hello Sr Elizabeth and Clare,
I am the grand-niece of Sr M.Bernard Larkin. I believe she was born in 1844. Her brother Luke was my grandfather.I knew very little about her as I was growing up. On the death of my aunt, Nora Larkin, in 1974 I found some letters from Australia. My aunt had told me of her existence. One was a letter from Sr Bernard to the family dated 22 Jan 1915. She asks for all her relatives and her old friends in the village and discusses the war. Another letter from Sr M.Albertus in Maitland dated 8th Feb 1922 announces her death to her brother, my grandfather Luke Larkin, and gives details of her funeral. There is also a cutting from a Maitland newspaper describing same.
I was brought up in the same house in Templetuohy village. Her mother was also from the parish. The thatched farmhouse the mother was reared in still exists. Sr Bernard's father was a postmaster and a farmer .We are told he also had road contracts. He was involved in some controversy during the elections of 1869. This is discussed in Vol II of the parish history, p.112 'Moyne-Templetuohy, A Life of its Own, the Story of a Tipperary Parish', published by the Moyne-Templetuohy history group 2001. The case is also described in parliamentary papers regarding the Cashel election of 1869.
Sr Bernard was a lay sister which means she had no dowry. This puzzles me slightly since the father, though a tenant farmer, was not without means. Perhaps the dowry was on the steep side. Her sister, Aunt Nellie, dearly loved by my father (also Luke), had her own 'fortune', lived with the family until her death and bequeathed her few hundred pounds to my aunts on her death in 1920.But then finances had improved for everybody by then.
Unfortunately, no information was submitted on Sr Bernard in the section of volume III which deals with religious and missionaries from the parish.
Coincidentally I was a boarder in the same school where Sr Bernard entered, Dominican Convent, Dun Laoghaire (formerly Kingstown). This was because my mother and aunt had been boarders there in the 20s/30s. I was unaware of the connection at the time. I was given some small pieces of information in 1991 by Sr Juliana (still living at 100 ) from the then Dun Laoghaire archivist, Sr Cataldus. She gave me the name of Sr Margaret Smyth O.P. in Maitland NSW.
My husband was on a visit to Australia in 1995. He visited the convent in Maitland and met Sr Margaret. He was shown Sr Bernard's grave and commemorative plaque in the chapel. I have pictures of this visit. She kindly sent me a history of the pioneer Dominicans in Australia, 'Dominican Pioneers in New South Wales' by Sr M.Assumpta O'Hanlon, O.P. Published by Australasian Publishing Co 1949. Page 137 is devoted to Sr Bernard. I have a further sheet on the pioneer sisters who arrived on the vessel Martha Birnie in 1867. This sheet has a photo of Sr Bernard, I cannot recall whether it came from Dun Laoghaire or Maitland.
There are no relatives of Sr Bernard in Australia. Other siblings beside Kieran, Luke and Ellen are listed as having been born. They may have died as children. Two were called Richard.
It is possible I may have relatives in Australia on the other side of my family. They may be called Carroll or Molloy. My mother recalled someone called Molloy visited from Australia in the 1920s, her father's cousin.
If you would like pictures of the house etc or scans of the letters I could send them . Does anyone know how I can safely send e-mail address etc?
Rita Larkin,
Clontarf, Dublin
