Sister Irene Hannon Hannon

Irene was born at Marrickville on 5 February 1914, the first child of William and Mary (MacNamara) Hannon. She was followed by eight more children – William (deceased), Teresa, Margaret, Patricia, Peter, Leonard, Michael and Anne.

The Hannon family moved to Penshurst about 1920 where Irene attended St Declan’s School until completing her Intermediate Certificate. She then attended Commercial College at St Patrick’s, Church Hill. Irene subsequently obtained employment as secretary in the office of Harry McEvoy, who owned a group of retail shops known as Foster’s Shoes.

Irene’s parish priest, Father Eamon Clune paid tribute to her family: “(Irene) comes from a very wonderful Catholic family where the faith is strong and the spirit of religion finely developed, and Irene herself has lived up to the best traditions of her family.” An article in The Catholic Weekly, September 7 1988 celebrating the Parish of Penshurst’s 50 years of its catechetics programme, records that about 1938 “some young women with Irene Hannon as their dynamic leader, formed a Theresian Centre… Seeing the great need, the Theresians decided to start Sunday School classes, and began by visiting the parents of the children at the State schools. The work was an immediate success.”
On 2 July 1941 Irene joined the Good Samaritan Novitiate, Pennant Hills, where she received the name in religion of Sister Mary Oswald. Following teacher preparation at St Scholastica’s Teachers’ College in 1944 Irene embarked on her ministry of teaching which was to cover almost 40 years and would take her to schools from East Innisfail in North Queensland to Moruya on the South Coast of New South Wales. From 1992 to 1998 Irene was a member of the community at Polding Villa, Glebe Point, until her final transfer to Gertrude Abbott Nursing Home at Darlinghurst on 30 May 1998. There she was lovingly cared for by the staff and Sisters of St Joseph including her Josephite nieces, and her family.

Irene died peacefully on 19 August 2003