Primrose McConnell (1906 – 29 May 1991) was an Irish missionary in Haiti.

Life

Primrose McConnell was born Frances Elaine Beckett in 1906 in

Foxrock Foxrock () is an affluent suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is within the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the postal district of Dublin 18 and in the Roman Catholic parish of Foxrock. History The suburb of Foxrock was d ...

, Dublin. Her parents were Edith Alice (née Park) and George F. Beckett, an architect. She had a brother and a sister. Samuel Beckett was a cousin, and the two attended

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

at the same time. On 6 July 1934, she married the Rev. H. Ormonde McConnell in Coke Memorial Church, Kingston, Jamaica. They had four children, Patrick, Marian, Alec and Hazel. He was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

minister who was posted to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The couple lived there for 36 years, where they learned Creole, developing a written phonetic form of the language. Using the Laubach teaching method, they organised literacy programmes for children and adults and founded the Nouveau Collège Bird. They published a number of books on a wide variety of subjects in Creole, with the language becoming known as Haitian and being adopted as the official language of Haiti with French. McConnell enlisted her father to design a new Methodist church in Port-au-Prince, which opened in 1954. She was also known as a gifted musician, playing the piano and organ as well as singing. The couple retired in 1970 and returned to Ireland. McConnell died on 29 May 1991, and is buried at

Holywood, County Down Holywood ( ) ( Irish: ''Ard Mhic Nasca'', meaning 'Height of the Son of Nasca'. Latin: ''Sanctus Boscus'', meaning 'Holy Wood') is a town in the metropolitan area of Belfast in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is a civil parish and townland of ...

. In Port-au-Prince, a thanksgiving service was held for her in the church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McConnell, Primrose 1906 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Irish women Irish Methodist missionaries Methodist missionaries in Haiti Female Christian missionaries Irish expatriates in Haiti People from Foxrock