Mary Gertrude Joyce

Sister Mary Gertrude Joyce (born Margaret Alice Joyce; 18 January 1884 – 1 March 1964) was an Irish Sisters of Mercy nun and musician.

Early life and family Sister Mary Gertrude Joyce was born Margaret Alice Joyce at 41 Brighton Square West, Rathgar, Dublin on 18 January 1884. She was the second eldest child of ten surviving children of John Stanislaus Joyce and Mary (née Murray). Through her grandmother, Ellen O'Connell Joyce, she was related to Daniel O'Connell. James Joyce, her older brother, was 18 months older. He called her "Poppie" due to a red cloak she wore to sodality meetings. It is said that she was his favourite sister. The Joyce family lived at 16 different addresses in Dublin and Bray owing to the differing fortunes of their father. Joyce was educated by Mrs Elizabeth Conway, a family governess,

After the death of her mother on 13 August 1903, when Joyce was 19, she cared for her younger siblings. She had to beg her father for money for food and other necessities, caught between the promise she made to her mother and her father's demands. Joyce's difficulties in raising the younger children with her father was the basis of the "Eveline" story in Dubliners. Joyce was the first person that her brother James told that he was in love with Nora Barnacle. She tried to dissuade James and Nora from going to the continent. She took Nora shopping for some clothes before they left in 1904, and helped the couple with their travel arrangements. She also tried to get James to reconcile with their father. On 30 December 1909 she entered the Convent of Mercy, Greymouth, New Zealand, receiving the habit on 13 July 1910. Taking the name Sister Mary Gertrude, she professed on 13 July 1912. She had never read any of her brother's works,