Tributes paid to Sister Mary Eugene

TRIBUTES have been paid following the death of Sister Mary Eugene Hagan, a former principal of a school in America, who was originally from Donaghmore.

She passed away peacefully on Sunday of last week in Dublin surrounded by her family. She was 98 years old.

St Bernard’s School in California where Sister Mary Eugene worked and lived, this week said, “We will keep Sr Mary Eugene in our prayers. She served many years at our school and Parish and was a strength and guiding force for many pupils.

“We are grateful for all of her years of love and service. May she rest in peace.”

Eileen Hagan was born on January 1, 1925. Her father, a carpenter by trade, also had a small farm, where the family lived. After attending elementary school in her home village, she went to a secondary school in Donaghmore, two miles away.

The school was staffed by teachers from the Daughters of the Cross, primarily a teaching and nursing order of nuns founded in Liege, Belgium, with schools and hospitals throughout Europe.

It was during those years in high school that she decided she wanted to join the Daughters of the Cross.

When she turned 18, Sister Mary Eugene was among nine graduates of the school in Donaghmore who headed for the Daughters of the Cross novitiate south of London.

She later taught in several Catholic schools in England, from primary grades through high school, serving as a school principal at one location.

“In 1960, they asked me if I wanted to go to California,” she said in 2019. “Four members of the Daughters of the Cross order had opened St. Bernard’s School in 1958, and each year, an additional teacher from Europe would arrive as the school grew from three to eight grades. I was the seventh.”

In 1966, Sister Mary Eugene became principal of St. Bernard’s, serving in the position for four years. She continued to be associated with the school until she returned to Ireland in 2019 to live in Beech Park Convent in Dublin.

Sister Mary Eugene’s funeral took place on Friday (September 29) in the chapel inside Beech Park Convent, Stillorgan. She was buried in the nearby Shanganagh Cemetery.