Convent ‘was the only place she wasn’t president’

THE head of a vow-of-poverty order, with which former president Mary McAleese spent regular periods during her 14 years in office, has broken her silence on their unusual guest.

The abbess of the Poor Clares convent in Ennis, Sister Gabriel, said the then-president “came in and lived like one of us” for a short period every year between 1997 and 2011.

Speaking about the visits — which involved washing the dishes and cycles of prayers starting at 5.45am — Sr Gabriel said the former president formed a close bond with the women in the enclosed order.