Little Nellie of Holy God

I am reading Frank O’Connor’s ‘An Only Child’ at the moment. Apologies for another quote so soon but I was in Cobh cemetery earlier last week and saw this cross and plaque.

When I read of ‘Little Nellie of Holy God’ , the name rang a bell somewhere on the very dusty shelves at the very back of the brain – somewhere that had not been visited for some time: somewhere originating on AbandonedIreland, I think. I made an ink and mental note to try to discover some more at some time in the future.

That task has yet to be ticked off but finding this cross is as good a reason for a blog.

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Mary Organ died 7th March 1907

At Spike Island aged 27 years

She was the mother of Ellen Organ

“Little Nellie of Holy God”

Who died 2nd February 1908 aged 4 years and

Who was interred in the good Shephard Convent, Cork

‘When I was a child, our walks often took us to the Good Shepherd Convent, in the orphanage of which she had grown up. I liked it because it had trees and steep lawns and pleasant avenues. On fine days we sat with one of her old friends on the lawn that overlooked the valley of the river, or, on showery ones, in the grotto of the nuns’ cemetery, and Mother of Perpetual Succour, who was in charge of the garden, took me round and picked me fruit, and I suspect that sometimes, when things were not going well at home, Mother Blessed Margaret gave Mother small gifts of money and clothes. In the convent cemetery, among the tiny crosses, among the tiny crosses of the nuns, was a big monument to one of the orphans, an infant known as Little Nellie of Holy God, who had suffered and died in a particularly edifying way, and about whom, at the time, a certain cult was growing up. I had a deep personal interest in her, because not only was I rather in that line myself, but Father had assisted at her exhumation when her body was removed from a city cemetery, and verified the story that it was perfectly preserved…..’

Frank O’Connor- An Only Child