The death of Mercy Simms on June 1st, 1998, brought relatives and friends to her funeral service in a spirit of appreciation and thankfulness for a life open to the call of the oppressed wherever she encountered them. Mercy Felicia Simms was consistently at the cutting edge of issues of justice. Involved all her life in the education and rights of travelling people, she was a member of the Government Advisory Committee on Itinerancy. She was an ardent member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and increasingly, in the key years before Mandela came to government in South Africa, she involved herself in Irish activities, being warmly thanked by Bishop Tutu for her support and honoured with life membership by the Irish branch.
She raised awareness around corporal punishment in the Fifties and around the housing crisis in the Sixties, giving her support first to the Dublin Housing Aid Society, a broad based ecumenical endeavour which she set up with Daithi O Hanlon and Eleanor Butler, Countess of Wicklow, and later to the more radical Dublin Housing Action Group when it needed moral support. Her work for the Girls' Friendly Society, of which she was world president in 1964, bore eloquent testimony to her aspirations of equality for all women. Innately shy, she could be fearless when she was moved to speak out.
Born a Gwynn to Brian and Mary Caroline Weldon on March 3rd, 1915, Mercy had an assured place in a family that supplied Ireland with a rich intellectual legacy over several generations. From her father she learnt through his committed pacifism and socialism the lifelong convictions that made her a pacifist. Mercy's grandmother was a daughter of William Smith O'Brien, one of the 1848 Young Ireland leaders, and her grandmother's sister was Charlotte Grace O'Brien whose love of Ireland and its people expressed itself in her campaign for safer emigration passage for girls.
Mercy's grasp of the nature of Irish nationalism was instinctive and often guided her husband to see a different point of view. She enjoyed her schooldays, first in the Quaker school in Rathgar in Dublin and later in her boarding school in Wales. A brilliant student, she made her mark winning a first-class double degree in Italian and French in Trinity College Dublin. Elected a scholar in 1937 she specialised in medieval literature retaining her love of Dante all her life.
She relinquished her lectureship in Italian in Trinity College Dublin the marry George Otto Simms in 1942, whom she met in the Student Christian Movement at a conference in Dungannon. It was a marriage of true minds and great love. The Simmses settled into a busy life when George was appointed chaplain/secretary to the Church of Ireland Training College, which he combined with being a Dean of Residence in Trinity College. Mercy kept open house in their residence in Kildare Street, welcoming especially women students from Trinity College.
On Dr Simms appointment as bishop of Cork in 1952, the family moved with him and their last child, John, was born there. Mercy surprised and delighted the people of Cork by her warmth and hospitality and the five Simms children transformed the old palace in the shadow of St Finbarre's Cathedral.
Mercy immersed herself in all kinds of Cork activities, becoming the area commissioner for the Girl Guides, nurturing the Mothers' Union Young Wives group and the Girls' Friendly Society. She opened the palace to the Cork Orchestral Society and to other organisations in the city.
Back in Dublin as the archbishop's wife, four years later, Mercy reconnected with her Dublin interests and developed latent ones. Together with her husband she prepared the climate for the new spirit of ecumenism associated with the post-conciliar resolutions of Vatican Two.
Among those the Irish School of Ecumenics, founded by Fr Michael Hurley, SJ, received constant support from Mercy and the Archbishop. Mercy, in ways quite distinct from her husband, played a significant part in promoting dialogue between the churches. She disarmed the Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Dr J. C. McQuaid, by her gentle forthrightness and they found common ground in their concern over social issues in Dublin and countryside. Mercy generously shared her own faith experience in inter-faith prayer meetings despite her natural reserve. As the mother of two daughters, Katherine and Hilary and three sons, Nicholas, Christopher and John, her insights appealed universally.
The move to Armagh, when Dr Simms was translated to the See of Armagh, coincided with the outbreak of civil disturbances in Northern Ireland. When her husband retired from that See in 1980, Mercy looked back on a decade of anguish and strain. She took part in the discussion of the Irish Association, and important meeting place for North-South, Catholic-Protestant dialogue. She encouraged Seamus Mallon in his early political endeavours and established firm trusting relationships between Cardinal Conway and her husband. Sometimes her ecumenism was misinterpreted, but Mercy Simms always remained true to herself.
The final phase of her life was passed in Dublin. She had kept up her scholarly pursuits and was an indefatigable proof-reader for her husband's writings. Her children, now grown-up, and her grandchildren gave her great joy. In the service of thanksgiving for her life on Friday, June 5th, the Most Rev Dr Henry McAdoo spoke eloquently of the testimony of her life much of it hidden. The choir sang Psalm 118: "The Lord is by strength and my song" and those present felt graced with the passing of Mercy Simms. M.MacC