Mum of the Year Finalist Lorraine O'Connor

 Woman's Way and Beko Mum of the Year Finalist Lorraine O’Connor might be the head of a large Irish charity, but she tells why she’s still just Lorraine from Coolock.

Every Friday evening, members of the Muslim Sisters of Éire (MSOÉ) feed those in need in front of Dublin’s historic GPO. What started off as a small charitable idea, has become a huge success, in many ways mirroring the life of the woman behind it all, Lorraine O’Connor.

When Lorraine left school at 14 years of age, she never imagined that one day she’d be responsible for helping the lives of hundreds of people. She set up the MSOÉ in 2010 after converting to Islam in 2005. “We’ve been doing the soup run for seven years now and it’s amazing, it’s taken on a life of its own. We have a whole team,” she explains. “It starts on Wednesday with orders coming and in orders going out, sleeping bags, tents, hygienic packs. We’re a HSE registered soup run so we are all Garda vetted and first aid responders, etc. It’s not just making a few sandwiches.”

The proud Coolock native was raised in a traditional catholic household and was adamant she was not going to change her religion just because she married a Muslim man in 1987. “I wouldn’t have called myself a strong catholic, but I was strong on the beliefs that you were raised in,” she says. For Lorraine the road to her conversion actually began many years before. “I always say your past makes you who you are today and certain chapters in your past are bringing you to the path of your future,” she reflects. “I visited Lourdes in 1993 and that was an amazing spiritual opening for me. It didn’t give me exactly what I was looking for, but it gave me a sense of something else out there.” After doing lots of research, Lorraine decided to convert to Islam in 2005 and insists it was a very personal decision for her. “For me it was the completion of what I was looking for.”

Unfortunately for Lorraine however, she was about to face a very different reality. “I’d become a Muslim and then three months later the marriage broke down and it ended in divorce. So here I was with four young children and a new Muslim.” It was tough going, but Lorraine found that her faith sustained her through it all. She was determined to stick it out, although it wasn’t without challenges. “Two storms were coming,” she recalls. “I lost my identity as Lorraine from Coolock and suddenly I became an immigrant in my own country,” she says. “How was I going to put a hijab on my head and then all of a sudden integrate back into my own community?” she recalls. “Secondly, I was also a new Muslim in that community. It was very hard.”

To make matters worse, Lorraine was the victim of Islamophobia. “My tyres were lashed, I was verbally abused, physically abused, and told to go back to where I came from, and that I didn’t belong in this country. I would say ‘well I am home, where do you want me to go, to Coolock?’ It was a battle.” Lorraine weathered the storms however. She went back to education ,and completed Women Studies in University College Dublin (UCD). She met her second husband and admits she found a sense of happiness she’d not had before.  

“I felt like I’d found myself, I felt empowered, and I felt proud of myself.” Lorraine decided she wanted to do more, so she went about setting up a women’s group, one that had autonomy to do its own thing. “I knew I wanted it to be independent and not affiliated with any mosque. I wanted this organisation to be made up of women whose voices were all equal and whose ideas were all equal. So myself and a friend threw a few cent in the kitty, which was an empty coffee cup, and we started with coffee mornings.”

Those coffee mornings soon sprouted into a large organisation (MSOÉ) with many strands. Chief amongst them was the idea of empowering all women and finding common ground. “In 2012 we had our first conference and I brought Muslim and non-Muslim speakers in,” she explains. “The common factor is that we are all women. I wanted to break down the barriers between us and connect us. We shouldn’t have a disconnect because of a language barrier, a veil, or a religion, we are all women, and we all strive for the same things.”

As well as charity work, helping the next generation of girls is another main pillar for the MSOÉ. Lorraine’s daughter Jameela works with her now as the groups Youth Coordinator. “We did a six-week summer project with migrant girls this year,” Lorraine explains. “Giving them that step they might not otherwise have taken. We went ziplining, kayaking, go karting, hiking, picnics, it was brilliant.”  MSOÉ also does school talks and is in nine schoolbooks. “Imagine that,” she beams. “Am irish Muslim women's organisation being in school books.”  

There’s no doubt that what started out as Lorraine’s own personal journey has gone on to have a powerful wider impact, but does she ever sit back and think about how much she’s achieved? “No,” she retorts quickly, “and I tell you why. The day I start saying look at what I’ve achieved, is the day I'm not in this for the right reasons,” she insists. “I’m in this for charity, for compassion and I’m hoping in the next life all the rewards will come to me there. I feel like I’m just a channel for women to do good and I couldn’t do any of this without the other amazing women behind me.” WW

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