100 women of 2024: Charity boss Lorraine O'Connor says 'people will do anything to help'
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Founded almost 15 years ago, the Muslim Sisters of Éire (MSOÉ) have become a familiar sight around Dublin.
Well known for their soup run, homeless support, and advocacy, they have offered help to countless people who felt they had nowhere to turn. While that work is the most high profile, the group does work all over the country and in many different areas.
Founder Lorraine O’Connor became a Muslim in 2005 and her experience as a Muslim woman in Ireland led her to create the charity.
She had to find a way to become part of the Irish Muslim community and re-integrate herself into Irish society as a Muslim woman.
O’Connor established MSOÉ to bring together Muslim women, helping them to feel empowered and find their voice, to take them outside the comfort of the Mosque and integrate into Irish society.
What began as a small movement has spread across the country and includes women of all faiths and none, but O’Connor wastes no time looking back.
“To me, it’s about what more can be done, not what have we done,” she says. “People ask me what work we do and I answer them with: what is the work we don’t do? There is nothing that we don’t do.”
The charity has its roots in the Muslim faith but O’Connor is at pains to emphasise that they help anyone who needs it and that Irish people of all backgrounds help to fund their important work.
O’Connor was raised by a mother who did all she could to help her community so it is little surprise that she followed in those footsteps.
“That’s the thing I’m very proud of,” O’Connor says and I can hear the emotion in her voice. “I know that my mam would be proud of me.”
The mother of four is equally proud to see the same charitable nature in her own daughters and feels confident that someday, one of them can take over her work.
Both O’Connor and MSOÉ have a string of awards to their name but it is seeing the impact of their work and the small words of thanks and encouragement that mean the most, O’Connor says.
- Lorraine O'Connor is one of our 100 women of 2024. Read the full list here.