THE DEATH HAS occurred of one of Ireland’s oldest women, Kitty Jeffrey, nee Clancy, who lived to see her 109th birthday.
Kitty Jeffrey passed away at Cork University Hospital in the presence of her family members.
Last November she had a 109th birthday party at her home in Knocksatukeen, near Midleton, Co Cork.
She celebrated the day with her children, friends and fifteen of her cousins.
Kitty was born on 12 November, 1914 in Glenville, Co Cork three months after the outbreak of the First World War.
Her daughter Anne told The Echo newspaper in March of last year that her mother was the third oldest person in the country.
The centenarian went to national school in Glenville. She did a secretarial course when she left school and worked in Jacksons, a gown shop in the Queen’s Old Castle.
She was employed at the shop until she married farmer George Jeffrey.
Anne said that her parents met at a dance in Garryvoe in east Cork and married in St John’s Church. The pair went to Dublin on their honeymoon.
“Dad was farming at home. He had been in Boston and came home to recuperate after an appendix operation and never returned.”
The couple had four children Anne, George, Norman and Ivor.
Mrs Jeffrey took up driving at the age of fifty. Prior to that she used to cycle to Cloyne for ICA meetings.
She was a founding member of the local ICA and was also in the Mother’s Union Group.
Kitty made butter and used to sell it and eggs to a grocery shop in Midleton. Once she got her wheels she drove to the country markets with her home made jams and chutneys.
Anne said that her mother was the financial controller of the family farm.
“She’d tell Dad to ask such as price and tell him if he wasn’t asking enough. When we sold the barley mum wasn’t happy with the price so she took up a sample to Murphy’s Brewery in Cork and got a contract. Women didn’t do things like that then.”
Kitty became a widow in 1986. It was a difficult life change for Mrs Jeffrey as they were a very united and happy couple.
Her faith sustained her in the years following the bereavement. Originally from a Church of Ireland family, on marrying her husband George the couple worshipped in Aghada Presbyterian.
Kitty’s late father James Clancy was from Kilfinnan in Co Limerick. He emigrated to Australia in the late 19th Century.
However, he found the climate too hot for his taste and decided to return to Ireland after a few years. He was the farm manager at Glenville Manor.
James met Anne Mills from Ballynoe and they married and settled in Glenville where they had two children, Bill and Kitty.
Clancy passed away when his daughter Kitty was just 16 years old.
Two years ago a special party was organised for Kitty to mark her 107th birthday. At the time her son George said that his mother lived through extraordinary periods in Irish history.
“She remembers during the troubled times there was a British soldier who rode into the yard looking for the local volunteers and they were told there was nobody here so he went off out again on his horse,” he said.
“She also remembered that during the Civil War a lot of the big houses were burnt. They came to burn the manor and the local people stood up and said, ‘No these are good people in Glenville, they’ve always looked after us.’
“So they went away. They didn’t burn the manor at that time.”
Kitty always said that the Civil War was the worst period in Irish history that she lived through arising out of the division in families.
Kitty “never cursed” and hated a lie of any kind. She spoke Irish and loved reading and doing the Irish Examiner crossword.
She never smoked or drank — with the exception of a rare glass of Bailey’s Irish Cream.
Kitty loved chocolates and flowers and her perfect Mother’s Day involved having a family lunch at a restaurant in Cork.
Of course the day wasn’t complete unless she went home with a box of Black Magic and a bouquet of fresh cut blooms to put in a vase.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say