She walks!

25 September 1914. As Rev. Edward (Ted) McGrath battles with his superiors at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to continue his involvement with the Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor, Eileen O’Connor walks after being confined to her bed or a wheelchair for the past three years. Nurse Cissie McLaughlin is helping Eileen bathe and is surprised when Eileen asks her to lay out a dress instead of her bed robes. Her mother, Mrs Annie O’Connor, visits Our Lady’s Home that afternoon and is amazed to see Eileen lowering herself into a chair. In 1974, Sister Ellen (Nell) Fitzgerald recalled, “We were just about to have our tea when Mrs O’Connor came up. She went to Eileen’s room and she screamed and we thought that Eileen had taken a bad turn and so we ran in and there was Eileen sitting in the chair. She got up and walked towards us – much to our surprise – and she came out then. She was carried out, down to the tea table with us and had tea with us, and then came back to her own room again. She walked back to her room. I saw her walk many times after that.”