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“…the prisoners….were drawn into a war that had its origins in colonialism dating back 800 years.Apart from the bare announcement of her death on February 4, an obituary and an appreciation in the Irish Times, the media ignored Sister Sarah’s obsequies.“That I had a special sympathy for Republican prisoners stems from the belief that had it not been for the political situation they would never have been in jail nor would their families have suffered or seen the inside of a jail”.
— Sister Sarah Clarke in her autobiography No Faith in the System, p 38.
A re-run of RTÉ television’s 1990 interview with her – in the series “Hanley’s People” — was postponed for several weeks
The great love and respect in which the late Sister Sarah Clarke was held was clearly demonstrated at her obsequies on February 11 and 12, 2002.
The removal took place to Our Lady of Hal Church, Camden Town, London on the Monday evening (11th) at 5pm. The Comhairle Ceantair of England, Scotland and Wales, Republican Sinn Féin was represented by Brendan Magill, Jim O’Dwyer and John Conway, who laid a wreath.
Helena Kennedy QC, a defence barrister for Republican prisoners spoke in praise of Sister Sarah’s life and work for Irish prisoners and their families. She also criticised both the London government and the Dublin administration in this connection.
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Also present were Paddy and Betty Ryan and a close friend of Sister Sarah, Nollaig Ó Gadhra, Gaillimh. The presence of high-ranking Fianna Fáil personnel was surprising in view of the fact that they extradited Republican prisoners to England, to the very injustice that Sister Sarah was fighting tooth and nail.
The town of Bannagher on the Shannon at the Offaly-Galway border was closed down as a mark of respect when the funeral cortege arrived. Crowds gathered for more than an hour before the Requiem Mass at St Rhynagh’s Parish Church including numerous members of the LSU Community.
Many former prisoners in England were present, including Father Patrick Fell, comrade of Frank Stagg, Ann and Eileen Gillespie, Donegal and Finbar Kissane, Waterford.
Also present were Ruairí and Patsy Ó Brádaigh; Joe and Mary O’Neill; Brendan Madden and John Clarke, Galway; Councillor Seán Lynch and Stephen Fulham, Longford; EJ Beattie, Roscommon and PJ McDonnell, Tipperary; John Walker, Gerry Hunter and Billy Power of the Birmingham Six and Paul Hill of the Guilford Four; former Republican prisoners Ciarán MacMuirí, Sligo and Hugh Feeney, Belfast. Mrs Feeney, mother of Hugh and a friend of Sister Sarah was also present.
People paid their respects to Sister Sarah, laid out in the plainest of plain coffins. Noted civil rights campaigners Monsignor Denis Faul and Réamonn Ó Muirí with Fr Fell and six other priests concelebrated the Mass in a church crowded to overflowing. A harp made in prison was placed on the altar.
Speaking after the Mass and before the funeral Denis Faul described Sister Sarah as “a heroic figure in the line of the nuns who helped out the Irish people since the Famine, especially in the emergencies of life, in Ireland, in England, in Australia, the United States and Canada.
During the 1973 hunger strikes in English prisons, Fr Brian Brady of Belfast, who died in 1986, joined her in service to the “have-nots” of society. Sister Sarah was a dynamic person who took up cases which were unpopular in England. To the victims of racially motivated miscarriages of justice she gave practical help, hospitality and hope.
Since the exposure of these miscarriages in the case of Irish prisoners, about 12 innocent (“ordinary”) English prisoners were released and a new system of Appeals was forced on the British Eastablishment. Sister Sarah believed she was just performing one of the Corporal Works of Mercy.
Pope John Paul 11 bestowed on her the award of the “Cross of the Church and Pope”. As long as grass grows green in Ireland she will be remembered,” he concluded.
At the outset of his address, Réamonn Ó Muirí criticised
the courts south of the Border in Ireland and condemned state terrorism.
Sister Sarah was a healer, he said, and for her Guiseppe Conlon, who
died in prison an innocent man, symbolised the injustice of the British
system of appalling state terrorism.
Her inspiration was found in the activities and writings of Archbishop Oscar Romero, Bishop Helder Camara and liberation theologist Leonardo Boff. Her humour and steely courage shone through at all times.
Her papers are now safe in the Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Archive. We bury her on the 13th Anniversary of the killing of Pat Finucane, whose family is still seeking justice.
When an Irish Republican prisoner escaped from the prison, the English Special Branch raided her apartment. One gruff policeman demanded to know who was the man in the large picture.
“Ah you won’t get him”, she replied when asked a second time. It was
Padre Pio who had died in 1968 and to whom she had a special devotion.
An t-Siúir Eibhlín Ní Threasaigh, Provincial of
the La Sainte Union order and a native speaker of Irish from An Spidéal,
Co na Gaillimhe, passed easily from English to Irish and back again when
she spoke.
She praised the sharp wit, intelligence and sense of humour of the “champion
of the prisoners”. She was a prophet of an alternative way of life.
Chuir sí naoi-scoil ar bun in Áth Luain le linn dí
a bheith ann. A gifted artist, she was both creative and innovative. From
the early 1970s she made her mark on the canvasses of life. Her imprint
would be there for a long time to come.
I dteanga do shinnsir, a Sharah, beannacht dílis Dé le d’anam.
Gareth Peirce, who defended many Irish prisoners, was the next to speak: “Thirty years ago Sister Sarah saw there was work to be done. For a time she was the only one to do it.
“The manner of the Irish prisoners imprisonment in England was meant to break the spirit of an entire community. Sarah did not accept obstacles; they were there to be overcome.
She supported the families; they in turn supported their prisoner relatives in heroic manner, inspired by Sarah.
Every Christmas, St Patricks Day and Easter she sent the prisoners cards and the little money she had at her disposal.
Persistently she demanded redress, that is justice. The system intended that these men and women would be in prison forever, but Sarah fought and exposed what was going on”.
Sustained and loud applause followed all of these addresses including the final one by the Curate, Fr Simon Cadam who acted as Master of ceremonies throughout.
Having thanked all present on behalf of the relatives of the deceased, he addressed one question to the young people present: “who would take Sister Sarah’s place?”
At Meelick Cemetery, Eyrecourt, Co Galway on the banks of Ireland’s greatest river, the Shannon, former prisoners in England carried their champions coffin to the graveside. Before it reached the grave, ex-prisoner Joe O’Neill was among those shouldering it.
The Balcombe Street Four who served 24 years in prison were there as were former Peoples Democracy leader and Civil Rights activist Michael Farrell and his wife Órla.
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh laid a wreath on the grave on behalf of Republican Sinn Féin – the only one with tri-colour ribbon; Brendan Madden of the Ard Chomhairle laid another on behalf of Galway Comhairle Ceantair.
Sister Sarah’s request to be buried with her family in Meelick rather than in the convent grounds was honoured by her Order, La Sainte Union. They had supported her in an apartment in London, had supplied her with a car to do her works of mercy and had serviced it.
She rests now in Meelick not far from the grave of the noted Irish scholar and lecturer at NUI Galway, an t-Athair Eric Mac Fhinn.
To the La Sainte Union community, her step-sister, sister in law, nieces, their families and a wide circle of relatives and friends SAOIRSE and all Republicans express sincere sympathy. You should all be proud of her life and work.
Síocháin Dé I measc na n-aingeal go raibh ag a h-anam uasal calma.
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