31. Maureen HUSSEY (Mary RYAN , Mary MURPHY , Mary ) was born 5 Jul 1924 in East Acton, London. She died 19 Mar 1995 in Mount Merrion, Dublin and was buried in Shanganagh Cemetery, Dublin.
Maureen grew up in Barnes in London. She attended school at a small French convent in Barnes and later went to the Sacred Heart Convent in Hammersmith.
By the time Maureen left school (during World War II), she had decided she wanted to be a nurse. After six months of basic training in a hospital in the Hammersmith area, she was assigned to the Navy and spent most, if not all, of her service-time at a naval base in Sherborne in Dorset.
Maureen's parents, having an Irish background, felt that their children would have a much better life if they were to settle in Ireland, so in 1947 Maureen and her sisters moved to Dublin. Within a short time, Cormac Gordon, a friend of hers whom she had first met in London when he worked in the Irish Passport Office, was back in Dublin, working in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Maureen and Cormac would later marry.
After her arrival in Dublin, Maureen began training as a medical laboratory assistant, and after qualifying, worked mainly in Trinity College and also in Dr. Steeven's Hospital. When her mother became ill, Maureen resigned from her job to care for her.
In her later years, Maureen became an active member of the Labour Party; she also devoted more time to writing, a passion of hers since childhood. After her death, family members published two books of her work: a collection of poetry, "The Tug of the Undertow", and a collection of prose and poetry, "Into the Wind".
