'People at home had been extremely generous to me and I had a few hundred pounds with me, and believe me, it was more than needed where I was going!'

'People at home had been extremely generous to me and I had a few hundred pounds with me, and believe me, it was more than needed where I was going!'

Rosemary remembers leaving home to go to live and work in Zimbabwe.

Rosemary McCloskey

Trinity College Dublin

1989

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Rosemary McCloskey

Work and Employment

Life Story

Belfast

1980's

There were few farewell parties for me and when I was ready to travel, Cecilia and Fr Ciaran Dallat accompanied me to London, where I stayed with Aidan O'Kane in Conway House (an Irish Centre Housing hostel for men in QuexRoad, Kilburn) for a couple of days This made the break from home a bit easier. People at home had been extremely generous to me and I had a few hundred pounds with me, and believe me, it was more than needed where I was going!Aidan O'Kane left me to Gatwick Airport. He did this almost every time I was going to Zimbabwe, and each time I returned, he would be waiting for me at 'Arrivals' when I would land in at 6.30am. There are few who would be generous enough to rise at such an ungodly hour, and travel to Gatwick to await my arrival and bring me back to his place, where I was able to rest and regain my energy after the ten hour flight, before proceeding home to Belfast the following day. I can never forget his great kindness, which has continued to the present day.I loved Zimbabwe, although at first my life there was fraught with frustrations. There was no real plan for my work and I used to ask the priests what they wanted me to do, but all I got was 'Time enough'I had been promised a truck and work among the people 'some form of catechesis or training catechists. This never materialised. I spent the first nine months in Nharira Mission, Chivhu, keeping house for the other two, and teaching the Franciscan postulants a bit of English. I had been very blessed to have been introduced to Ambrose and Maureen McCann who lived in Harare ,when they were in Belfast on a visit home. Florence Mossey, who was a former neighbour of ours, and who had moved from Manor Street to Rosetta Road, had heard that I was due to go to Zimbabwe, and she thought it would help to have first-hand information about life there. Ambrose and Maureen duly came to Brookvale Avenue for their dinner one evening, and talked at length about it. They also told me that I would be more than welcome to call their house 'home' when I would go there. That was one gift to me, for when times were tough, as they were occasionally, and everyone needs a shoulder to cry on now and again, the McCann's were there for me, and their house was at my disposal. Many an evening I would go to 6 Northolt Drive, Mabelreign Harare, where they lived, and hoot the horn for Ambrose to come and open the gate for me. Their hospitality and kindness were second to none, and I can never forget them for the support and 'home 'they gave me when I needed it.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)