‘I lived on spuds!’ says Molly, as she turns 100 years of age

Mother of 10, Molly McLoughlin of Clare Hill, Ballymore, recently celebrated her 100th birthday with 120 family and neighbours in the Grand Hotel, Moate. In addition to her seven daughters and three sons, Molly has 30 grandchildren and 47 great grandchildren.

When asked to what she attributed her longevity, Molly shrugged and chuckled before putting it all down to hard work and diet. She never drank or smoked and never ate or drank any dairy products, no milk, no butter, no cheese, nothing. “I lived on spuds,” she laughed.

Born Mary Anne Smith of Coolatore, Molly attended Rosemount NS along with her brother George and sister Betty. “We hadn’t much back then,” Molly reminisced, recalling how they walked to school, in their bare feet in summer. Among her classmates were Mary Geoghegan and Nellie Daly.

When she left school Molly worked on the family farm until, at the age of 24, she married Paddy McLoughlin, who died 38 years ago. “We were married in Tubber church and had our honeymoon in Dublin. When we got back we had a big party with a barrel of porter,” and no doubt, lots of music, song and dance as the McLoughlins are renowned for their musical talent.

Like her mother, who was an accomplished dressmaker, Molly has knitted and sewed all her life. “She made every stitch for the 10 of us, dresses, coats, jumpers, socks,” her daughter Patricia remarked. At present she is knitting a beautiful cerise Aran cardigan for one of her great granddaughters, her daughter Nuala’s grandchild. “That’s what she calls the easy stitch,” her daughter Carmel laughed.

Molly has worked hard all her life, raising her 10 children, keeping house and helping on the farm. The washboard came out every Monday, every day she made fresh bread, and every week she churned butter.

They kept pigs and cows and Molly always had a lot of hens until one fateful night the dreaded pine marten got in and killed 30 of her beloved birds. Paddy worked hard on the farm and in summer, on the bog, cutting turf with a sleán.

All f their children were born at home, except the eldest Judy and the youngest Bernie, in the house they built when they got married and in which Molly still lives. None of the 10 emigrated.

The ICA was the main social outlet for rural women when Molly was raising her large family. “I was in the ICA along with Nellie Kennedy, Mary Mahon, Carmel Byrne, Annie Murtagh, Rene Hanly, Gret McLoughlin, and Bridgie Furey,” she recalled.

Nowadays, her social outing is bingo twice a week, in Ballymore and Moate. “They were very good and made a big fuss of her on her birthday in both bingos,” Carmel said. Molly has been playing bingo for more than half a century, having first started in The Kirk in Moyvore. “I used to go with Nellie Kennedy. Fr Deegan used to run it and Pat Rogers used to read out the numbers,” she remembers.

Molly received the customary letter from President Michael D Higgins, in which expressed his congratulations. ‘You have lived through remarkable times in the history of Ireland and the world. You have witnessed remarkable changes, in lifestyle and technological developments, unimaginable at the time of your birth in 1924’, President Higgins wrote.

Letters, cards and flowers have been flooding in, congratulating Molly on her 100th birthday. She thanked the committees of both Ballymore and Moate bingos and all who sent her good wishes, and the neighbours who joined her and her family for her party in the Grand Hotel. “We had a great night,” she declared.