Primary school’s guard of honour for ‘dedicated’ Cookstown teacher

STAFF and pupils at a Cookstown primary school formed a guard of honour for a much-loved former teacher as she made her final journey through the town.

Born Eileen Keohane, but known to generations of local schoolchildren as Sister Assumpta, the highly-regarded nun taught for many years at Holy Trinity Primary School.

Sister Assumpta, who lived at the Convent of Mercy in Cookstown, passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 27. After her death was announced, dozens of past pupils took to social media to remember a ‘real lady’.

Ahead of her Requiem Mass at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Cookstown last Monday, P7 pupils and staff at Holy Trinity PS formed a guard of honour as she passed the school for the last time on her journey to the church.

Presiding over the Mass was her nephew, Canon Martin Keohane, of Cork and Ross Diocese.

The priest said, “74 years ago, Eileen came up to Cookstown from Cork, it’s a long time. So her home is here and she spoke very fondly of the place.”

Fr Keohane greeted Sister Assumpta’s two sisters, Chrissie and Mary Jo, who live in Manchester and Cork and tuned into the Mass on the parish webcam.

“If you think I am going to praise Assumpta on this occasion, you’ve got it in one. After all, she was my aunt and we all love our own and we can’t see anything wrong with them. But it will not, I guarantee you, be empty praise.

“Today, we thank God for Eileen’s life – her dedication, example, commitment and most importantly, faith.

“In everything she did, whether it was teaching, telling a story, singing a song, needle work or entertaining us when she came home to Rosscarbery in West Cork – she always invited a response, she demanded an action on our part.

“Let us honour Assumpta today, honour her faithfulness, by living faithfully ourselves and then with her we will rejoice and be glad for our reward will be great in heaven,” Fr Keohane added.

Sr Assumpta is survived by her sisters, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews and also her larger family circle.

After the Requiem Mass, she was laid to rest in Forthill cemetery.