Mayo Abbey’s ‘Katty’ celebrates 105th birthday

ONE of the oldest persons in Mayo, Catherine ‘Katty’ Delaney, enjoyed tea and cake as she celebrated her 105th birthday with relatives, friends and neighbours yesterday (Tuesday).

On her lap rested a letter from President Catherine Connolly wishing her a happy birthday and congratulating her on her longevity.

Included in the package of correspondence was a special commemorative coin in a presentation box.

One of the many tasks Katty had to perform during her days as a priest’s housekeeper included milking cows, saving hay, and growing vegetables.

She even looked after a Suffolk ram which won many show-day ribbons for the late Canon Heaney, parish priest of Mayo Abbey in the 1950s.

Katty, a believer in the value of simple food as a means of maintaining good health, never smoked and never in her time entered through the doorway of a dancehall.

Asked on her 100th birthday why she never went to a dance, she replied: “It’s just that I didn’t go. I never bothered.”

Longevity may well be in Katty’s genes for her grandfather, Walter Hughes, was 103 when he died in 1939.

Grandad Walter used to tell her stories of the Great Famine and is believed to have been one of the first persons in the west of Ireland to ride a bicycle.

In her memoirs, published in recent years, Katty wrote: “There have been big changes in Mayo Abbey during my lifetime.

“Everyone is well educated, the people have plenty to eat, they live in comfortable houses and can communicate with their friends at home and abroad simply by taking up a smart-phone.”

In comparison with other years, Katty’s 105th was low key, marked by cups of tea and brief visits from friends and relations.