CATHERINE Mary Shannon is a registered nurse and family nurse practitioner, and the director of infection prevention and employee health services, at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, a 311-bed community hospital in Smithtown, Long Island.

A native of Rockaway Beach, Shannon received a diploma as a registered nurse in 1971 from St. John’s Queens Hospital School of Nursing. She attended St. Joseph College on Long Island and graduated in 1997 with a bachelor’s in community health and human Services. In 1999 she earned a master’s in nursing from Columbia University.

Shannon’s father hailed from Rathmore, Co. Kerry. Her maternal grandparents came from Gneeveguilla and Rathbeg in Kerry.

“My maternal grandmother ran a roominghouse in Rockaway Beach and housed many Irish immigrants as they came to New York. My parents were married in St. Rose’s in Rockaway Beach,” Shannon says.

“This was where my brothers and I were raised, steeped in the Irish culture that makes me who I am today. My parents made numerous trips back and after my father’s retirement they moved back to Ireland where they remained for many years in Kerry. When grandchildren arrived, my parents returned to New York.”

Shannon is widowed. She has two adult sons, Jason and Jeremy, and one infant grandson Brody, who she calls the “apple of my eye.”

While growing up Shannon played the fife and bagpipes. “When I take my knowledge in Irish history, family, music and put it all together and create who I am today—a person who knows that she is a proud Irish American, who is now passing this heritage on the her children and grandchildren,” she says.

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