Sister Dympna Carew, believed to have been the oldest Irish person, has died in South Africa just a few weeks after celebrating her 109th birthday on January 5th.
A native of Dundrum, Co Tipperary, Sister Dympna, a Dominican nun, emigrated to South Africa more than 84 years ago and lived in retirement at St Michael's Convent at Rondebosch, outside Cape Town.
Sister Dympna died peacefully after a week-long decline in her health. She is survived by her 96year-old younger sister, Sister Bede Carew, who is a nun in the same convent. Longevity runs in the family and two other sisters lived to be 100, while two brothers lived into their nineties.
Sister Dympna was born in 1890 and educated at the St Louis Convent in Monaghan. She trained as a primary teacher in Liverpool and taught briefly in Britain before she entered the Dominicans and emigrated to South Africa. Sister Dympna taught until she was 85.
There are 19 nuns in the Cape Town Dominican community.