Submitted by: Dan Rich

Irene V. Ranaghan

Sept. 2, 1906 - Feb. 12, 2001

South Bend Tribune 2/14/2001

Irene V. Ranaghan, 94, of St. Vincent Street, South Bend, Ind., died in Christ on Monday evening, Feb. 12, in her home. She was born on Sept. 2, 1906, in New York City, to Joseph and Mary Jane (Mathers) Flanagan.

On Dec. 26, 1935, in the Carmelite Church in Manhattan, Irene Flanagan married John F. Ranaghan of County Down, Northern Ireland. The Ranaghans lived for many years in New York. After his retirement they began spending the summer and fall in South Bend, and moved here permanently in the mid-1970s. Mr. Ranaghan died in 1988.  Surviving Mrs. Ranaghan is her son, Kevin (Dorothy) Ranaghan of South Bend, with whom she lived since 1988. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Anne (Ronald) Linczer of Mishawaka, Mary Faith (Eric) Hall of Denver, Colo., Susan Ranaghan, Christine Ranaghan, Kevin John Ranaghan and Monica Ranaghan, all of South Bend; seven great-grandchildren survive her also, Edward, Grace, John, William and Claudia Linczer, and Beatrice and Eva Hall.

Mrs. Ranaghan was one of twelve children and is survived by her sister, Marcy Luizzo of Glen Oaks, N.Y. She was preceded in death by brothers and sisters, Sarah, Thomas, Florence, Katherine and Helen Flanagan, all of whom died in childhood, and by Joseph Flanagan, Anna Connolly, Theresa McAvey, Alice Tavolacci and Martin Flanagan, all of whom enjoyed full lives.

She was a serious and devout Catholic, and a member of Sacred Heart Parish, Notre Dame. She liked to refer to herself as the "grandmother of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal." For most of her life she was a daily communicant and, in recent years, prayed with the daily televised Mass. At St. Helena's Church in New York City and at St. Vincent's Church in Delray Beach, Fla., she joined with other women in the charitable works of the parish. For many years she participated in charismatic prayer meetings and was keenly interested in promoting Christian unity. She was a devotee of the theatre, an avid reader, and an engaging conversationalist. She was generous in so many ways but particularly liked to brighten every family birthday with chocolate cherries, cremes, and toffees from The Philadelphia.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, with Rev. John Riley, C.S.C., presiding in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the Notre Dame campus. Entombment will follow at St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park in Granger, Ind. Friends may call from 3 to 8 p.m. on Thursday in the HICKEY Funeral Home, 17131 Cleveland Road, where a wake service will begin at 7 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to Trinity School, 107 S. Greenlawn Avenue, South Bend, IN 46617.