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Sr Anita Lynch OP PDF Print E-mail

Sr Anita has been a Dominican Sister for nearly 50 years and she reflects back over her life with great fondness and an eye for detail!

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I was born in Drogheda and arrived in Dublin when I was 11 years old. As my father was a Bank Manager we moved around a few times. I was sent to school with the Dominicans in Eccles Street, Dublin and I really liked it there.
After school I worked in the Civil Service and I was intending to join the bank at the age of 21; but the draw to the Dominicans was stronger for me at the time. It is difficult for me to pinpoint any single reason for joining the Dominicans – there were so many diverse reasons. I think at the time I was full of all sorts of lofty notions!

Noviciate 1945

I arrived at Kerdiffstown Noviciate in 1945 at the age of 21 - my mother, a cousin and an aunt came with me – we travelled by car and the Naas road was only a country lane at the time. I didn't know what I was letting myself in for but I knew some people who were already there. Just before I entered that I had been a volunteer with the Red Cross and now the war was over I felt the country could spare me!

Assignations 1940s

My first assignation after my Profession was to Dominican Hall in St Stephen's Green. After that I was asked to go to Dun Laoghaire Convent and taught in the school there. There was another sister there who had the nickname ‘Shotgun' and after a while I found out that my nickname was Pellet and for my whole time there we both became known as ‘Shotgun and Pellet'.

After my Final Profession I was sent to University College Dublin to do an Art's Degree. As religious we didn't mix with other students very much outside of class and everyday I wore my black cloak and carried my books in a bag hidden under my cloak. We went back and forth to classes and were not allowed to speak to anyone we passed on the way.

Ballyfermot 1950s

After teaching in Muckross Park for a while I was assigned to our brand new school just built a few years earlier in Ballyfermot. The day before the school opened in September 1956 a new community of thirteen sisters had been assigned to the new convent. Settling into the new convent was chaos as we tried to make some order out of the mess the builders had left behind. There were no benches in the chapel and it was still full of workmen; hardly anything was unpacked. It was hard but we did it together and that made it a bit easier. The school grew from strength to strength – I enjoyed my time there.

Back to Kerrdiffstown 1960s

After that I ended up back at Kerdiffstown as a member of staff in the early 1960s and it was then I saw my first pair of modern ‘tights'- after being used to wearing stockings we couldn't believe that anyone could fit into something that looked so small! I was there for 6 years.

Contemplative life 1970s

At that time I felt called to the contemplative life so I asked to be assigned to the enclosed Dominicans in Drogheda. So I became a novice again. Just before making Profession I was told a new rule had come out that any novice who had transferred from another community had to extend their noviciate by another 6 months.

I was there for a few years but then felt that perhaps the contemplative enclosed life wasn't for me and returned back to the apostolic Dominicans in Cabra where I taught for a while.

In the mid 1970s I ended up going back to Ballyfermot. It was much bigger than it was the last time I had been there in the 1950s. When the convent closed in the 1980s I joined a small community in a small house in Glasnevin and I loved it – it was my first experience of a small community living.

What have you most enjoyed about being a Dominican?

On the whole everything – I could not even think of ever leaving this wonderful group of women. It has been a great experience of life for me.

Santa Sabina House 2005

Then I came to Santa Sabina House after I had a small stroke – and I am very happy here. Everything is just perfect – my needs are often attended to before I think of them. Here one is free all day to pray, read and listen to the radio and I am enjoying the hundredfold which the Lord promised those who joined religious life.
 
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