A Hundred Years Old

Dear Sr. Kevin,

 Today, 7th. June 2023 you were born a hundred years ago from Government buildings. Now you are at Home in the Father’s House in Heaven and we sense your happiness and joy. We like to think that you are doing what St. Thérèse said she would do - spending your Heaven doing good upon earth especially bringing peace to war-torn Ukraine. You entered life at a most difficult time in the history of our Country.  The Civil war was only a few months formally ended when your mother gave birth to you.  You came in the wake of the killing of your Grandfather Dr. Thomas O’ Higgins as a reprisal for  his son Kevin’s role in the execution of four leading Republicans. Small wonder then that your young Daddy who carried such terrible pain in his heart, would see in you his first born little daughter, a sign of peace, an olive branch.

  Your parents remembered that in the Bible  Noah had sent out a dove to see if the waters were receding from the surfaces of the

earth and when it came back to him  with a fresh olive branch in its beak  Noah knew that the flood was subsiding.  You, little Maev were that  fresh olive branch who gave hope to your young parents that the bitter flood of the civil war was subsiding.

 You grew and thrived amidst all that unrest. Your much loved  sister Una was born in 1927. But only 6 months later tragedy struck again  when your young Daddy was assassinated on 10th. July on his way to Mass in Booterstown Church. You father forgave his murderers as he lay dying and pleaded for an end of the killings in our country.

 His example inspired you always as did that of your Grandmother who gathered her 17 children around the dead body of her husband and made them promise never to take revenge.

 Dear much-loved Sr. Kevin, you put your whole heart and soul into your Carmelite life, serving God  and your country and the whole world through your life of prayer. You were filled with God’s love. We will never forget you.

 Your family planted an olive tree  last year in our grounds to honour your memory. It is laden with tiny olives today.

 The words of the psalm are fulfilled in you:

 I am like a growing olive tree in the house of the Lord.

 I trust in the Goodness of God forever and ever.