Sr. Íde (Hanora) Woulfe (b.1915)

Track 1: Sr. Íde (Hanora) Woulfe’s mother was Catherine Colbert, sister of Con Colbert. Sister Íde explains that following Catherine’s mother’s death in Athea, Co. Limerick, she went to live in Ranelagh in Dublin, where her two sisters and her brother, Con, joined her. Following her marriage Catherine and her husband, Richard Woulfe, moved to Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick where, during the War of Independence, Richard Woulfe spent a long period on the run. Prior to the 1916 Rising, Sr. Íde’s uncle, Con Colbert, did not discuss his IRB connections with his siblings, she explains. Track 2: Growing up in Abbeyfeale, Sr. Íde recalls the boycotting of her father’s pharmacy by the local people during the Civil War. She also recalls hearing of the involvement of her uncle, Con Colbert, in Fianna Éireann and his love of teaching Irish. Track 3: Contains Sr. Íde’s memories of the old Colbert home in Athea, her mother’s maternal family from Co. Clare, and anecdotes about the Black and Tans in Co. Clare. Track 4: Sr. Íde’s life as a missionary sister is described. Track 5: Sr. Íde recalls the night the Black and Tans raided her family home in Abbeyfeale in search of her father. She mentions the group of women, relatives of men on the run during the Civil War, who would gather to say the Rosary at The Square in Abbeyfeale, and the local response to this. She recalls the confusion she felt as a child on her father’s return home after his years on the run. Track 6: Views on the English establishment, garnered during her time as a teacher in England, are provided by Sr. Íde. She gives an account of her family’s circumstances in former times. Track 7: Sr. Íde’s education, entering the Sisters of St. Louis, her missionary work as a nurse in Ghana, and the colonial system there before the advent of Communism, are all explored.