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Article: Troubles can be overcome Nicholas Bagnall enjoys the story of an inspirational headmistress who brought hope to the Falls Road
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- April 15, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Sister Genevieve
by John Rae
Little, Brown, pounds 16.99, 269 pp
pounds 14.99 (99p p&p) 0870 155 7222
UNDER ANOTHER headmistress, St Louise's Secondary Intermediate
School, Belfast, might have been not much different from any "sink
comprehensive".
The girls in its catchment area, the Falls, were from very poor
families, their fathers mostly unemployed if not in prison, their
brothers perhaps getting their pocket money from the IRA. After the
Troubles started in 1969 they often found it hard to get to school
through the rubble without being stopped at an Army checkpoint.
But the principal of St Louise's was no ordinary woman. She was
Mary O'Farrell, otherwise known as Sister Genevieve, a ...