Born: January 31st, 1918Died: June 23rd, 2026She may have been Ireland’s oldest woman for just a matter of weeks, but Sr Colette Hickey, who died last week at the age of 108, has left a legacy of support and care for the vulnerable on Leeside that will long outlast her extraordinarily long life.She was born Bridget Hickey on January 31st, 1918, one of four children born to John and Bridget Hickey, and grew up with her siblings, Annie, Mary, Katie and James – who died in infancy – on the family farm at Barracree, Ballinamult, at the foot of the Comeragh mountains in Co Waterford.It was a simple existence, typical of most people living in rural Ireland at the time. She would later recall how the family had no electricity but relied on oil lamps, and how she helped out at home by drawing water from a well in two buckets before walking 3km to Kilbrien National School.The family were devout Catholics and at age 17, she joined the Good Shepherd Sisters. She entered their house in Clare Street in Limerick on September 24th, 1935, and a year later was received into the congregation, making her first profession in July 1938 when she was given the name Sr Colette.Founded in France by St Mary Euraphrasia Pelletier, the Good Shepherds were established to build on the work of the earlier Order of Our Lady of Charity to care for women and girls in difficulty who wished to improve their lives. The order had a similar aim upon its arrival in Ireland in 1848.Moving soon after her profession to Cork, where the congregation had established a community in Sunday’s Well in 1870 with a mission to care for young girls, Sr Colette worked initially in the kitchen. She established a reputation as an expert baker as she adapted to the religious life.The Good Shepherd Sisters were an enclosed order at the time, and it wasn’t until 1968 that Sr Colette and her sister Mary, who also joined the order and became Sr Roch, were allowed leave the Good Shepherd Convent in Cork to visit their family in Ballinamult for the first time in 30 years.Sr Colette arguably found her true calling four years later, in 1972, when she was asked to oversee the Good Shepherd Sisters’ takeover of the Sancta Maria Hostel on Dyke Parade in Cork where the Legion of Mary had run a facility to provide for the basic needs of homeless women.Her friend Sr Jane Murphy in her eulogy at her funeral Mass spoke about how Sr Colette had told her about how she became involved in Edel House. “The sister in charge in Sunday’s Well took her for a walk in the gardens and told her, ‘I want you to go and sleep in Edel House tonight’.”As directorirectress, she quickly set about improving the hostel. It was renamed Edel House in honour of Kanturk-born Legion of Mary missionary Edel Quinn who had ministered in the slums of Dublin before working with the poor in Africa where she died in Nairobi in 1944, at the age of 36. Sr Colette’s compassion and care for those who needed a place to stay was appreciated by the thousands who came to the door of Edel House during the past 54 years. In the interim the service has expanded dramatically and today Good Shepherd Cork offers a range of support services for the vulnerable.Now a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, Good Shepherd Cork, in addition to providing accommodation for homeless women and their children at Edel House, it also operates a family hub at Redclyffe on Western Road in the city, as well as an education centre, Bruac, on Redemption Road.In 1993, Sr Colette was the recipient of the first Cork Person of the Year Award, presented to her by then taoiseach Albert Reynolds, who had travelled straight from Downing Street in London where he had just signed the Downing Street Declaration with John Major.Cork Person of the Year organiser Manus O’Callaghan recalled: “It was a special day with Albert Reynolds coming from London, but Sr Colette was special too. I remember in her acceptance speech she said she was accepting the award on behalf of the homeless of Cork.“And I remember later that day, as I was walking her out the door of the old Jurys Hotel, I said by way of small talk ‘If ever I can be of help, let me know.’ The next morning, she rang me and I ended up [spending] 20 years on the committee of Edel House. That was how she was: she drew you in.”[ Ireland’s oldest woman, Sr Colette Hickey, dies aged 108Opens in new window ] A woman named Sinead told The Echo newspaper in 2011 of how Sr Colette welcomed her, along with her mother and her siblings, to Edel House after they fled their home because of her father’s drink-fuelled violence.“My dad would come home like a mad man, full of drink- it got to the stage that my mam had to get out of the house because the violence was getting so bad. My dad was asleep and we ran out of the house and went to Edel House – this nun, Sr Colette, opened the door and said, ‘There’s a bed for you and your kids – you don’t have to be at home in a violent relationship’.”Having lived an institutionalised and enclosed life for the first 30 years of her vocation as a nun, Sr Colette learned to drive, and she was a familiar sight zipping in her red Ford Fiesta between the Good Shepherds in Sunday’s Well and the new Edel House which opened on Grattan Street in 1994. In 1994, the convent in Sunday’s Well closed and Sr Colette moved with her sister nuns and some of the residents to a new sheltered housing development called Baile an Aoire in Montenotte but she continued to do regular sleep nights at Edel House where she welcomed those in need.At the age of 102, she moved to residential care at the Bons Secours Care Village at Mount Desert on the Lee Road in Cork – just around the time of the Covid pandemic. She spent the remaining six years of her life there, going to Mass daily and having the rosary played in her room.Murphy said of her in her eulogy: “While her mobility was very challenged with the last few years, she was blessed with a wonderful memory and a crystal-clear mind – she had an incredible memory for people and names that astounded all of us up to the very end.“She was a woman of great faith, she was always praying and she was full of gratitude for anyone who would help, praying daily up to the very end for people who helped in any way with Edel House or Good Shepherd Cork over the years – she never forgot those people, staff, Volunteers, board trustees, donors and supporters and the people of Cork.” Sr Colette is survived by her nieces, Mary, Brigid, Phil and Joanne, and her nephews, Tony and Jim.