Donegal Abbey Singers to help commemorate women in World War II Resistance

Two Donegal commemorations will recall Irish women who were imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp for their activities in the French and Belgian resistance in World War II through choral music, poetry and literature.

The Community Hall Franciscan Friary Rossnowlagh on Thursday, April 24 at 7:30pm and St Patrick’s Church, Donegal town, the following day, will host two commemorations on the 80th anniversary of their liberation.

The Berlin Choir La Voix Mixte will resurrect the spirit of Seamus Heaney with a Unique musical composition by Uta Schlegel - Hope and History. The 30-strong Berlin choir will travel to Donegal for the commemoration to sing with the Donegal Abbey Singers.

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Catherine Crean, a Dubliner, died 80 years ago just as the camp was being liberated. A French survivor describes her death amidst the horrors of the camp: “She had no strength left and all she wanted me to do was comb her hair.”

Sister Kate McCarthy was a Franciscan nun from Skibbereen in County Cork. Cathi Fleming’s biography tells her story.

Sister Agnes Flanagan was born in Birr, County Offaly and left the convent to marry a Belgian. In 1965, when the British Foreign Office offered her a pension, she wrote back describing how she nursed British servicemen and smuggled messages to help them escape.

Mary O’Shaughnessy was brought up in England but with Irish parents and became a nanny in Paris, where she joined the Resistance. She is remembered in England and has a dedicated Facebook page.

Mary Cummins. was a secretary and nanny to a Belgian Countess. She describes how as a young woman who used her youthful good looks to distract the SS. She lived in Clontarf into her 90s and told her story on an RTE documentary in 1991.

Their skills as nurses, nannies and nuns and their language skills helped get injured British servicemen out of Nazi-occupied Europe. They didn’t look for fame or glory, and it has taken a long time for their stories to attract attention.

The Berlin Choir calls for justice to bring hope for resistance today. Hope and History may never be heard again due to licensing restrictions for public performance. The Friary Hall event will also include information on Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, a reading from a Biography of Sister Kate Mc Carthy’s Biography and a reading from the novel Bone and Blood by Margo Gorman, inspired by survivors of Ravensbrück. This event was organised by a group of German and Irish citizens following a similar event in the Irish Embassy in Berlin.