10 Facts About Katherine Butler

Sister Katherine Butler was an Irish nun with the Religious Sisters of Charity, teacher, writer, and aviator.

Katherine Butler had decided to take up a religious vocation from age 17, but was persuaded to wait until she was 21 by her parents.

Katherine Butler used this time to undertake a degree in science at University College Dublin.

Katherine Butler had become interested in aviation after seeing Sir Alan Cobham's Air Circus in the early 1930s, and so began to take flying lessons at Kildonan Aerodrome, with pilots such as John Currie.

Katherine Butler spent time in England teaching during World War II, and later studied in Rome in the late 1960s.

Katherine Butler last taught in the order's Marymount school in Harold's Cross, before moving to the order's Crumlin convent in 1977.

Whilst in Crumlin, Katherine Butler began an outreach programme, conducting home visits with her pupils.

Katherine Butler wrote for magazines and periodicals, with a particular interest in the area of ecumenism.

Katherine Butler was an active member of the Old Dublin Society, and wrote for their journal the Dublin Historical Record, winning the Society's annual award for best paper three times.

Katherine Butler attained special permission from her order to donate her body to the Royal College of Surgeons for use in medical research.