Growing up as a typical Western Australian country girl, Sister Irene McCormack lived on a farm at Trayning and went to St Joseph’s convent school, later boarding at Santa Maria College, Attadale.

As a member of the Australian Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, The Brown Joeys, she was committed to her teaching in Victoria and Western Australia before volunteering to work with the Josephites’ Mission in Peru, following her sense of service – ministering the impoverished.