Sarah Mac Donald speaks to 101-year-old Sr Bríd Kenny about missionary life in Korea and her memories of co-founders of the Columban Sisters, Fr John Blowick and Mother Mary Patrick.
Sr Bríd Kenny from Coolmeen in Co Clare joined the Missionary Sisters of St Columban on 9th April 1942. She got to know the Sisters because her cousin Laura lived close to Cahiracon, where the congregation first established itself in 1922, ahead of receiving papal approval in 1924.
Laura was born in Ceylon as her father served there with the British Army and Bríd was intrigued by this faraway place. She was also reading about Columban missionaries in places like China through the Far East magazine.
As she was often “called on to look after Laura” when her uncle and aunt were busy or away, these visits to Cahiracon enabled her, “to get to know the Columban Sisters and Mother Mary Philomena” and to learn about the Sisters who had gone to China from 1926 onwards.
Sr Bríd took her First Vows on 17th October 1944 and her Final Vows on 3 October 1949. In the novitiate, Sr Bríd was on her own in her year but there “were nine or ten” ahead of her which helped create a sense of camaraderie.
Sr Bríd and her brother, Columban missionary, Fr Paul Kenny who also spent time on mission in Korea.
During those formative years in Cahiracon, her brother Paul, who was eight years younger than Bríd came to visit “very often”. She believes the seed of his vocation as a Columban Father was planted in those visits. “He was only a little young lad. Mother Mary John would give him bamboo for a fishing rod.”
Later both Sr Bríd and Fr Paul spent time on mission in Korea and were able to meet up. “It was lovely,” she recalls of one Sunday when “about six of us drove in the van belonging to the Sisters to where Paul was, and we all had a lovely meal.”
After First Profession Bríd was initially based in Cahiracon between 1944-45, before she moved to Dalgan where she worked with the Columban Fathers between 1945-1960.
“There was six of us looking after the kitchen and the college. It was wonderful to see a group of 30 men being ordained. But you had to work hard that morning to get a meal ready for them for after the ordination ceremony.” Her cooking was legendary within the Columbans!
Sr Bríd was based in Magheramore between 1961-2. Her first assignment to Korea was to Hallim on Jeju Island, where she stayed between 1962-1971. The Korean War was not long over and many of the people were poor and in need of medical care.
“It was very sad, there wasn’t a thing you could buy. People suffered a lot. But they were determined to get on; they went to school, and they were ambitious and worked at it – they were really lovely.”
Columban missionary, Fr PJ McGlinchey, was parish priest of Hallim. He set up projects to help raise people’s standard of living. One of these was a woollen factory that would offer employment mainly to women.
Mother Mary Gemma appointed Sr Bríd and along with Sr Elizabeth Taaffe and Sr Mary Rosarii McTigue to Hallim to work with Fr PJ. They were to oversee the project from the time the wool arrived at the mill, through the various steps of weaving, to the sale of textiles and garments.
“It was mainly hand-knitting and weaving. Sr Rosarii was very well up on weaving and I was very good at knitting. Sr Elizabeth did a lot of administration work for Fr McGlinchey. By the time I left Jeju there were about 300 people in different places on the island involved in the project, some of whom were special needs. They did the knitting in their own homes. There was a US military base on the island and the Americans used to buy items to bring home.”
Sr Bríd and Fr Paul at the Dalgan nursing home shortly before Fr Paul died in 2021.
Following her spell in Hallin, Sr Bríd moved to Seoul, where she worked at the Columban Sisters’ mother house from 1971-2003. Visiting Columbans were always assured of a taste of Ireland thanks to Sr Bríd’s culinary skills.
She remembers Fr Noel Daly and Fr Jimmy McMahon rejoicing when she produced a small loaf of homemade soda bread, some scones and a cup of tea. “I had just taken the soda brown bread out of the oven and you could smell it all over the place. We used to make our own marmalade. Jeju Island was full of oranges.”
At 101 years of age, Sr Bríd is one of the few Columbans today to have known both of the co-founders of the Columban Sisters, Fr John Blowick who died in 1972, and Mother Mary Patrick who died in 1959. She describes Fr Blowick as “a lovely man” who was “gentle” and would “always stop on the corridor for a little chat – he was friendly and very charitable”.
Sr Bríd Kenny with the commemorative silver medal President Michael D. Higgins sent her along with a congratulatory letter to mark her 101st birthday.
She remembers Mother Mary Patrick recounting how the ocean liner she was travelling aboard was torpedoed in the Atlantic in 1940 during World War II. “She was coming home because they were cut off from the missions. She was very nice, a strong but gentle person who liked to have things right.”
Looking back over her long life, Sr Bríd gives thanks to God. Being a Columban Sister, she says is like being part of “a family where everybody helped”. It was “like being at home. We had wonderful people who directed us and taught us prayer. There was a great family spirit.”
Sarah Mac Donald is Editor of the Far East magazine.
First published in the September/October 2023 issue of the Far East magazine. Please subscribe and support our missionaries. Just €10 for a year’s subscription to the digital edition and €20 for print. See: https://columbans.ie/product/far-east-magazine-yearly-subscription/
