The City of Brampton officially dedicated Sister O’Reilly Road with a ceremony Tuesday (June 19).

The road is located near St. Patrick’s Catholic Elementary School where Sister O’Reilly was the first principal when it opened in 1950. She was principal until 1953.

Sister O’Reilly was born in the area, known as Wildfield, in 1896. As Sister St. Eugene, she took her final vows as a nun in 1924 and after that taught at various schools around the province.

She returned to Wildfield in 1946 as Mother Superior of the new Loretto Convent, and as principal of the original St. Patrick’s school, which was opened in 1907, where she had been a student. The present-day school is still in use by the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board and its current principal, Norma Resendes, attended the dedication ceremony.

The ceremony was held in nearby Father Eugene O’Reilly Park, named in honour of her great grandfather.

Her nephew, Dan O’Reilly, who is working to preserving the area’s history, asked for the road to be named after his aunt and asked that the City of Brampton hold the official dedication to help introduce the students to the history of the area, and their school.

Dan O’Reilly told the students about the area’s former residents and their history in a speech he delivered Tuesday.

“I would like to pay tribute to the hard work, dedication, and self-sacrifice of the Loretto Sisters who were the main teaching staff at the school for its first 30 years,” O’Reilly told the group at the dedication. “Most of them, I believe, had the best interests of the students at heart, even if they could be a little strict. Not that was too much of a concern for my sister and I as Sister O’Reilly was our aunt and that provided a certain amount of influence, cache, and protection — even though she’d been transferred to other postings long before we entered St. Patrick’s.”

Sister O’Reilly Road is located south of Mayfield Road and west of The Gore Road.

Sister St. Eugene died in 1986. She had been a nun for 71 years.