recite their lessons. Kathleen’s favourite subject was arithmetic, a subject 
     
    
   
   
    
     in which she would continue to excel throughout her academic career. 
     
    
   
   
    
     She got along well with her teachers, all nuns from the Congregation of 
     
    
   
   
    
     the Sisters of St. Martha. 
     
    
   
   
    
     She walked to school every day, and at noon would make the trek home 
     
    
   
   
    
     for lunch. If it was raining, or during the winter months, she was driven 
     
    
   
   
    
     by her brothers Earl or Gerald. In the event of a storm, someone would 
     
    
   
   
    
     be there to pick her up. Sometimes during the winter she would join 
     
    
   
   
    
     with other students catching a ride on a sleigh which would be passing 
     
    
   
   
    
     through the village. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     During the war a Canadian fighter plane 
     
    
   
   
    
     fiom the airbase in Snmmerside crashed in 
     
     afield near Kinkora. Standing on the wing 
     
     of the plane are fiom left to right, Kathleen, 
     
     her brother Earl, Kay Farmer, Bernadette 
     
     Mulligan and Edna Gallant 
     
    
   
   
    
     The school at Kinkora was 
     
     progressive and offered a 
     
     superior education system. Irish 
     
     Roman Catholics had always 
     
     believed in the importance of 
     
     education as a way of opening 
     
     up new opportunities which 
     
     had been denied them in the old 
     
     country. Kinkora was the first 
     
     rural district in Prince Edward 
     
     Island to upgrade its school to 
     
     grammar status in 1871. The 
     
     Sisters of Saint Martha began 
     
     staffing the school in 1921. The 
     
     Sisters of Saint Martha was a 
     
     relatively new congregation. It 
     
     was established in Prince Edward 
     
     Island by Bishop Henry O’Leary 
     
     in 1916 to serve in a variety 
     
    

    
     of ways the Roman Catholics 
     
     who made up 45 percent of the 
     
     Island’s population. In their 
     
    
   
   
    
     first decade, 97 percent of the entrants were from Island communities 
     
    
   
   
    
     and 80 percent were Irish (Kathleen’s two sisters would later join the 
     
    
   
   
    
     congregation.) 
     
    
   
   
    
     62 KATHLEEN MURPHY, MAITRIARC