Sister Imelda of Therese was born Maureen Brennan, at 75 Stella Gardens in 1922. She became a nun and spent 60 years teaching in India, where she died April 24th 2006. She was buried in her adopted country.

Her brother Jack, who still lives in Stella Gardens, remembers that he was only 12 or 13 when she went away at 17 to join the Novitiate of the Sisters of Cluny at Gallen Priory in Ferbane.

When she professed she was assigned to the Indian Mission and went to Scotland to await passage to India. Sister Cecilia who knew Imelda says that she and her companion took a boat for India which would have taken over two weeks, going via Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and on to Bombay. The following train journey to Salem in Tamil Naidu took over 30 hours and was followed by a bus journey.

Sister Imelda was later transferred to Darjeeling, then to Bangalore as Secretary to the Provincial and finally to Yercaud where she taught English to the young girls preparing to join the Novitiate.

Sister Imelda had specialised in the history of the Congregation and in the life and spirituality of the foundress, Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey, who has been called the First Missionary Woman and Liberator of the Slaves. Sister Imelda was to give a talk to her students on the very day she suddenly died of a brain haemorrhage. She was 83 and had spent 61 years in India. Her friend Sister Cecilia says she will be badly missed as she was dearly loved by all and was a beacon of light.

Jack organized a memorial mass for Sister Imelda in Ringsend. She went to school in Lakelands and in the Dominican College in Eccles Street and will doubtless be fondly remembered by friends and family.

Her last visit home was in 2001 when she stayed with Jack and his daughter. Jack says she loved India and the people and was always healthy and busy up to her last day.