Not an ancestor of mine, but a brave woman of County Clare who influenced my life and the lives of many in New Zealand. Mother Clare Maloney left Ennis with seven other Sisters and two Postulants in June 1878. They sailed from Ireland on the S.S Upupa for England and at Plymouth boarded the S.S Garonne for the voyage to Australia via the Cape of Good Hope. During the voyage, M. Clare Maloney transferred to the S.S Lusitania and was at Port Philip, Melbourne when the other Sisters arrived there in September 1878. Seven days later they all embarked in the S.S. Albion and sailed to New Zealand arriving in the very south of the country at Bluff, 30 September. From Bluff they sailed upo the east coast of the country to Lyttelton and then to Wellington where they were welcomed by the Sisters of Mercy who were already established there. Meanwhile the building of a Convent (St Columbkille's) n Hokitika on the West Coast of the South Island was well under way . On 15 October the S.S. Tararua with the Pioneer Sisters aboard dropped anchor off shore from Hokitika and were taken by the tender Waipara across the treacherous bar and up the Hokitika River to the wharf in dangerous weather conditions. They were welcomed by people assembled in vast numbers on the wharf.
All the Sisters - professed Sisters and Novices M. Mary Mechtilde Boland, Sr M Gabriel o'Kennedy, Sr M Juliana Ryan, Sr M Aloysius Magrath, Sr M Claver Ryan, Sr M Cecilia Sheehan, Sr M Angela O'Keefe, and Postulants Sr Kate Maloney and Sr Katie Ryan - had inherited the unswerving loyalty and steadfast devotion of the Celtic Faith, they had been well educated and had a real appreciation of beuty in nature and art and a love of humanity. The young leader of the pioneer Sisters, Mother Mary Clare Maloney was a woman of great integrity and ability, deeply spiritual, highly principled, steadfast and generous. She had a cheerful, alert personality which had the tendency to arouse zest and effort and arounsing ideals in others. The Sisters worked mainly in the schools that they established in Hokitika and other towns on the West Coast and later in Canterbury. Throughout the period of expansion of the works of the Sisters of Mercy. M. Mary Clare filled the office of Leader of the Congregation until 1892.
Mother M. Clare Molony died in Hokitika on 30 October 1931. She is remembered as a woman of deep faith and a born leader. For the Māori people, she had a particular love and they sought her counsel. “The rata flower has fallen at last, and we grieve for her,” was the message of sympathy from Māori of Arahura. She took Westland and its people to her heart, never missing a chance to pour her own love of scholarship and learning into the hearts of the young. “Her knowledge of the classics, her love of history, and her absolute joy in unfolding the faith made her a rare teacher,” wrote a former student.
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| Date of Death | 30th Oct 1931 | VIEW SOURCE |
| Place of Death | Mother M. Clare Molony died in Hokitika on 30 October 1931. She is remembered as a woman of deep faith and a born leader. For the Māori people, she had a particular love and they sought her counsel. We grieve for her. | |
