Brígida Scully (1883-1970), landowner and benefactor, was born in the city of Buenos Aires on 24 March 1883. She was the first of three children of Lucas Scully (1850-1907) and Catalina Culligan (1861-1898), and lived out her life on the estancia 'La Estrella' in Solís, a district in San Andrés de Giles in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. La Estrella was a vast rural property in the borders of San Andrés de Giles, Exaltación de la Cruz and San Antonio de Areco, and was founded by her grandfather James [Santiago] Scully (b.1814) around 1875. The imposing main house of the estancia is still in an excellent state of repair, with a windowed viewing balcony on the upper floor. In some areas of the huge park on which the house stands, there are vestiges of the moat that surrounded the residence to protect it from attacks by indigenous people. When Brígida Scully's was in her formative years, the British teacher Lola Josefina Pyne was living at La Estrella and probably taught her the basic education.

Brígida Scully was a well-known promoter of religious and charitable works. She was a member of the Ladies’ Commission of the San Andrés de Giles Hospital, founded in 1905, for a number of decades. The commission was responsible for the maintenance costs of the hospital, organising parties, dances and other social events to raise funds.

The Irish-Argentine estanciera was active in the religious and charitable events which took place in the parish church of San Andrés de Giles, to which she made important donations. Scully also provided funds for the maintenance of the old folks’ home San Andrés in that city.

Together with her father Lucas and her sister Isabel (d.1945) Brígida Scully was one of the co-founders of the Chapel of our Lady of Rosario in Azcuénaga town, consecrated in 1907, a project undertaken by the Irish-Argentine community. Brígida and Isabel went frequently to Solís, another town in San Andrés de Giles, to teach the Roman Catholic catechism. Every December 8th, they received the children at La Estrella to receive their first communion, and donated clothes and rosaries among the poor.

In San Antonio de Areco, Scully was involved in the management of the 'María Clara Morgan' Hospital run by the Sisters of San Camilo, to whose congregation she left her house and some 850 hectares of land when she died on her estancia La Estrella on 10 January 1970. She died unmarried. Her remains repose in the family vault at the Capilla del Señor cemetery.

Héctor Raúl Terrén

References

- Coghlan, Eduardo A., Los Irlandeses en Argentina: su actuación y descendencia (Buenos Aires, 1987), p. 822.

- La Libertad newspaper of San Andrés de Giles (25 January 1970).

- Terrén, Héctor R., Viejas estancias (unpublished manuscript).