Patricia Mulhern, mother of 11, grandmother of 25 and great-grandmother of three, passed away on January 10, 2015, aged 88 years. As well as a devoted family woman, many will have known Patricia as a prominent community worker, social justice campaigner, business-woman and as a proud Enniskillener.

In addition to a busy family life, Patricia was active in the community right up until her death - nurturing community confidence, cross-community understanding and engendering a love of life wherever she went. A firm advocate for the rights of women, people with disabilities and older people, with a subtle combination of human warmth and steely determination, she spoke out against condescension, apathy or discrimination wherever she encountered them.

Patricia was a pioneering member of several organisations that set out to build community and challenge prejudice including the Forget Me Nots Older Women’s Group; Women Making Waves, a social and campaigning group for disabled and non-disabled women; the Golden Age Club; Fermanagh Women’s Network and the Devenish Partnership, where she was a valued board director until she died. Never a maverick, Patricia was a gifted team-worker with a distinctive leadership style inspiring and supporting others to get involved and become active.

Her advocacy skills and community work were noticed beyond Enniskillen: she was a member of Northern Ireland Older People’s Parliament and was awarded Community Volunteer of the Year Award in 2007 by Sarah Brown, the wife of the then Prime Minister.

On that occasion, Patricia made little comment about the award but instead asked after the Browns’ small children in Downing Street - typical of her warm and personal touch.

For Patricia family life was at the heart of things. Born Patricia Murphy in 1926 in Queen Street, she was an only daughter, well loved by her five brothers. Proud of her origins in the ‘back streets’, Patricia felt a strong life-long affinity with that community. She attended Mount Lourdes School where her contemporaries found her to be bright and lively.

In 1948 Patricia married a young schoolteacher, ‘the master’ Sean Mulhern, and they became a formidable partnership parenting 11 children and working for the community while still finding time to enjoy their passion for amateur dramatics.

Patricia shared the stage with Sean on several occasions and, later, with two of her daughters.

A very busy woman and, perhaps understandably, disinclined to learn her lines, she became skilled in the art of improvisation. Patricia would sparkle with mischievous delight as she took to flights of unscripted poetic fancy, leaving her fellow actors literally speechless. This ease and fluency with words never left her; well into her 80s she could hold an audience with the elegance and incisiveness of her public speaking.

Together, Patricia and Sean created a warm and loving home, humming with a houseful of children and their schoolfriends, visiting relatives and lodgers.

When Sean died suddenly in 1981, Patricia was left alone with a large family, including three still at school. This period was Patricia’s greatest challenge and she faced it with resourcefulness and resolve. Turning her large family home on the Sligo Road into a B&B she ran a popular family business, known for the warmth of its welcome and the keenness of its pricing. In those pioneering days of Northern Ireland tourism, she and her daughter Grainne were especially proud to merit a glowing listing in The Rough Guide to Ireland, proving themselves to be amongst Fermanagh’s tourism assets. Years passed and Patricia’s partnership with Grainne went from strength to strength as she encouraged her daughter to grasp every opportunity to learn, grow and travel. Grainne responded enthusiastically and soon displayed the same love of life, entrepreneurial flair and appetite for social justice as did Patricia, particularly for the rights of disabled people. Together they were a powerful, energising and life-affirming force in the community and people loved them for it. Grainne’s early death aged 45 was a huge blow to all who knew her.

Patricia Mulhern lived a good life, she gave every day her very best, her life made a difference and she enjoyed every minute of it. Those of us who are privileged to have known her cannot help but be inspired to try harder. Her family is of the view, Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann (we shall not see her like again).

Patricia is survived by ten of her children, her grand and great-grand children and by her brother Gabriel.