In 1945 the Sisters moved to a new 36-bed hospital. At that time there were seven sisters, three doctors and various other staff, but the number of patients far exceeded the available beds so the building and expansion of Portiuncula began.

Portiuncula Hospital - Opening Day April 1945

In 1950, when Eva went to Portiuncula, Mother Margaret Keenan was still there. However, Sister Bernard Rudden, a great missioner, had moved to Nigeria in Africa where she stayed until she retired. At this time she returned to Ireland and in April 1993 died in Ballinasloe.

One of the seven sisters, Sister Stanislaus Ormond (or Sister Stan as she was known in the convent) would probably have been in charge of Eva when she first arrived at Portiuncula. Sister Stan was a well-known figure in Ireland and a great storyteller. Her ministry was to visit schools and talk to young women about religious life and missionary vocations; many would remember her old projector and seeing a film which showed the way of life at Portiuncula, called "The Fields Are White". Sister Stan died in September 2003.

Mother Margaret Keenan moved to the Ladywell Convent in Godalming, Surrey, England and was Superior General from 1971 -1977. She died in July 1990.

In 2002, the ownership of the Hospital was transferred to the Western Health board and it has grown to be among the best known acute general and maternity hospitals in the west of Ireland.

Early in 2005, the Sisters moved to their new home ‘just down the field’.

Click here to visit the website of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood.

Portincula

In 1950, at the age of 23, Eva entered the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood (FMDM) at the Portiuncula convent in Ballinasloe, county Galway as a postulant. The Portiuncula convent was a maternity unit/hospital, in Ballinasloe in the west of Ireland. It must have seemed a long way for a young girl to travel and stay away from home for the first time, Eva said it was ‘out in the country’.

Postulancy is the first stage along the road to religious service. This is a time to “Come and See” as Jesus first invited his own disciples. During the time of postulancy and novitiate you are free to leave at any time. These are times of searching and finding out if you are in the right place. During the time of Temporary Vows you are free to leave at the end of each year when your time of profession expires. After you make perpetual profession a dispensation is needed from Rome if you wish to leave. From the time you start postulancy until you make final vows can be anything between 8 and 13 years so there is plenty of time for reflection and deciding if our way of life is right for you.

The name Portiuncula is well known in Franciscan circles throughout the world. St. Francis loved this “Little Portion” it was the place where the brothers gathered in the early days, the place where the whole Franciscan movement was nurtured from its infancy stages. Today it continues to retain a high significance as the Mother of all Franciscan Churches.

In 1951, Eva transferred to the mother convent, Mount Alvernia, at Guildford in Surrey, England. This was the Motherhouse and Novitiate at the time. (This is a period of being a novice / A place where novices live). It was here that she ultimately came to the decision that the convent was not to be her life and made plans to return home to Dublin.

Mother Margaret Keenan & Sr. M. Bernard Rudden

In 1942 two Sisters, Margaret Keenan & Bernard Rudden, were sent from England to Ireland to find a suitable location for a Nursing Foundation. The sisters obtained two small houses in Mount Pleasant, Ballinasloe and the F.M.D.M. community of Portiuncula was established. Five more sisters soon joined and a small nursing home had begun. In February 1943 the first patient was admitted and nine days later the first baby was born.

The Portiuncula in Ballinasloe began in two small houses in Mount Pleasant.