Sr Marie Therese remembered in Limerick as a dedicated educator

Sr Marie Therese Courtney died peacefully at the age of 104 on January 10, 2025 at Catherine McAuley Nursing Home Limerick in the loving care of Sisters and staff.
Marie Therese was born to Michael Patrick Courtney and Augusta Louisa Thrower in Cahir, Co Tipperary on March 12, 1920. She was the second eldest of a family of six – five boys and one girl and all are now deceased. RIP.
Sr Marie Therese received her primary education in Cahir, Co Tipperary and her secondary education in Coláiste Mhuire in Ennis. She then qualified as a primary teacher in Mary Immaculate College after which she taught for one year in the Presentation Primary School, Thurles. She entered the novitiate in Westbourne, Limerick on September 8, 1941 and was finally professed on January 11, 1948. She taught in St Mary’s Secondary top from 1947 –‘48. Marie Therese had a PH. D. in Education and a PH.D. in English. She had her own distinctive style of teaching. She was a great scholar and was truly a lifelong learner. She passed on that love of learning to her students and encouraged them to pursue their respective goals. Condolence messages from past students aptly remember her exuberance and blithe spirit instilling in them a love of literature and poetry both classical, contemporary and American. ‘She enthused us, she encouraged us, she amused us. How we loved her English Lectures,’ wrote a student in a condolence message.
Some recall how she went the extra mile to help them navigate their chosen academic post-graduate studies.
When she retired from Mary Immaculate College where she taught from 1952–1985, she was asked to do research on Catherine McAuley the foundress of the Mercy Congregation.
Creativity, faith and exploration were the hallmarks of Marie’s life, and those attributes led her to the Limerick Mercy Mission in Rockledge, Florida after retirement, where she excelled in promoting the R.C.I.A programme.
The former Pastor appreciatively acknowledges her ministry in the parish: ‘Marie was my guardian angel and muse and her benign presence at St Mary’s community in Rockledge Florida was a great blessing to all who were fortunate enough to experience her mystical gifts .Her blithe spirit was a constant light especially in darker times. One of her many memorable phrases was 'The Sacramentality of Memory'; her memory now will continue to be a blessing to all of us who were fortunate enough to have known her. Thank you Marie, we love you very much, pray for us.’
Fr Nicholas King, retired Pastor of St Mary’s Catholic Community which Marie served so very well and so lovingly and thank you Lord for having sent her, your beautiful daughter to us on loan from the Sisters of Mercy.’ On her return to Ireland in 2006 she lived in Westbourne, and later moved to St Mary’s before transferring to Catherine McAuley House in 2018 due to declining health.
Marie was really a mystic and an eco-feminist, gifts that enriched her life to the end. She treasured the kindness and friendship of her various Mercy communities, all the friends, colleagues and students she met along the way. Marie openly and regularly ‘Praised the Lord.‘
Reading her self – composed poem (2012) we can dip into the personal, literary and spiritual road she travelled with a unique confidence and personal insight:

‘ Lord
How long does it take to wake up!
The alarm has gone off, we are still on snooze, drifting…
Shake us, wake us from the long sleep….
In smugness and complacency
In stiffness and rigidity
In coldness and cruel solemnity.
Gentle Shepherd
Gather us home to your heart
Cradle us and comfort us
Hold us and heal us
Empower us to be
Your Compassionate Face in the world.’

Lord may her loving soul rest contentedly in your arms until we meet again.
Solas na bhFlaitheas dá hanam dílis
Sympathy is offered to the staff and residents of Catherine McAuley House, St Mary’s, the wider Mercy community, her nieces and nephews in Wales, her cousins in Washington and Ireland.