Joyce, Margaret Alice (‘Poppie’; Sister Mary Gertrude) (1884–1964), Sister of Mercy and musician, was born 18 January 1884 at 41 Brighton Square West, Rathgar, Dublin, second eldest of ten surviving children (four sons and six daughters) of John Stanislaus Joyce (qv), revenue inspector, and Mary Joyce (née Murray). She was related to Daniel O'Connell (qv) through her grandmother Ellen O'Connell Joyce. Her brother, James Joyce (qv) the writer, who was eighteen months older than her, called her ‘Poppie’ because of the red cloak which she wore for her sodality (catholic layperson's guild) meetings. An acquaintance said she looked just like a poppy. She was James's favourite sister. Poppie lived at sixteen different addresses in Dublin and Bray due to the changing fortunes of her father. She was educated at home by the family governess, Mrs Elizabeth Conway, and later at the Dominican College, Eccles St., Dublin.
From the age of 19 she took care of her younger siblings after the death of her mother (13 August 1903). The difficulties Poppie had with her father while rearing the younger children became the basis of Joyce's story ‘Eveline’ in Dubliners. Eveline also promised her mother to stay at home for the sake of the children. Poppie had to plead with her father for money to buy food and other necessities. She was caught between the demands of her father and her commitment to her deceased mother.
Poppie was the first person Joyce told that he was in love with Nora Barnacle (qv). She tried to dissuade James from going to the Continent and also failed to dissuade Nora from going with him. She took Nora round the shops to buy some clothing before her departure in 1904 and helped Nora and James with their travel arrangements. Later Poppie urged James to try to reconcile his father to his mésalliance.
On 20 August 1909 Poppie went to the Convent of Mercy Missionary College, Callan, Co. Kilkenny, for three months with a view to becoming a nun in Germany, but changed her mind when James suggested she should go to New Zealand – which she did, leaving Ireland 10 November 1909. James, who had returned to Dublin in connection with his Volta Cinema project, went to see her off from the North Wall when she was leaving for England to connect with the ship sailing to New Zealand. He promised her that he would send her the fare if she ever wanted to come home. She entered the Convent of Mercy, Greymouth, New Zealand (30 December 1909), received the habit of the Sisters of Mercy (13 July 1910), taking the religious name Sister Mary Gertrude, and was professed on 13 July 1912.
She taught singing, piano, and violin in Greymouth and Runanga till 1949, when she came to Christchurch to teach the boys of Loreto College in the suburb of Papanui till three weeks before her death at the age of 80. When she was told that she had only a few weeks to live, she requested the destruction of her letters and photographs. Thirty years of weekly letters from her brother James and other members of her family went up in smoke. From the time she left Ireland in 1909, she had not read any of James's writings till 1964, when she was presented with a copy of A portrait of the artist as a young man by Fr Godfrey Ainsworth, OFM. According to her, James sang every line when writing his essays.
Sister Mary Gertrude Joyce died 1 March 1964 in Calvary Hospital, Christchurch, and is buried in Waimairi cemetery, Christchurch.