Veronica brady biography

After teaching at Loreto Convent in Kirribilli, NSW, she moved to the University of Western Australia in 1972, becoming an Associate Professor in 1991.
Veronica Brady IBVM (born Patricia Mary Brady; 5 January 1929 – 20 August 2015) was an Australian religious sister who was a noted writer and academic.
Veronica Brady IBVM was an Australian religious sister who was a noted writer and academic.

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Larrikin Angel: A biography of Veronica Brady by Kath Jordan

Biography

by Delys Bird•

June 2009, no. 312

Larrikin Angel: A biography of Veronica Brady by Kath Jordan

Round House Press, $32.95 pb, 294 pp

Biography

by Delys Bird•

June 2009, no. 312

The question of the relationship of the biographer to their subject is a fascinating one. Kath Jordan is frank about her long and intimate friendship with Veronica Brady as she recounts the way this book came into being. In a preface, she remembers celebrating with a friend the High Court’s rejection of Western Australia’s challenge to its Mabo native title decision, in March 1995. Thinking of Brady’s active involvement in Aboriginal rights issues, the two decided that they would write her biography. Brady gave her consent to the idea – although there is no sense that she was closely involved with the project – and what became the unexpectedly long gestation of Larrikin Angel was eventually begun, with only one author.

Larrikin Angel is a very readable, unpretentious, roughly chronological narrative of

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Vale Veronica Brady (1929-2015)

Born Patricia Mary Brady on 5 January 1929, “Veronica” was the name she adopted when she entered the Loreto order at the age of 21. It is a teaching order, not a cloistered one, and this suited Veronica Brady admirably; she gained a reputation as a stirring and inspiring teacher, particularly after joining The University of Western Australia in early 1972. With the late Bruce Bennett she championed the introduction of studies in Australian literature, at the time in the face of sometimes stern opposition. There was nothing like stern conservative opposition to get Veronica moving: her ancestors were Irish Catholics and on her mother’s side included convicts, so in one sense she always remained true to her roots.

Veronica Brady gained a national and international reputation as a public intellectual, literary critic and tireless moral crusader. She was fearless, a Mother Courage whose causes were her ‘children’. That courage often put her at odds with governments or the Church, and drew controversy but also admiration from many people across a wid

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Loreto farewells their “Larrikin Angel” – Sr. Veronica Brady

Veronica spoke out publicly against the Vatican’s stance on abortion, homosexuality and contraception and was actively involved in the Aboriginal Rights Movement.

On the topic of Church and women, Veronica said in an interview with good friend and ABC Journalist Phillip Adams, “It is often viewed that the priest is a step-up beyond the rest of us and is revered profoundly. That doesn’t seem to be true to the founder of the whole show, Jesus.”

In the same interview Veronica expressed gratitude for the support of the Loreto Sisters, “I’m fortunate to belong to a community which has been pretty brave in the way they have put up with me!”

Many of her friends and colleagues from UWA described her as a “larrikin angel”. This epithet became the title of a biography written by Kath Jordan. On its back cover Fred Chaney is quoted as saying “In an often smug and complacent society we need Veronica Brady and her ilk to remind us to look beyond ourselves. I think Jesus would be OK with her”.

She’s probably testing him out right