Mr and Mrs Donnelly mark the Diamond Jubilee of their wedding
February 1962
MR. and Mrs. Thomas Donnelly, Greenlanes, Drogheda, one of the town’s happiest couples, celebrated a big event in their lives on Tuesday - the Diamond Jubilee of their wedding. With pride in her eyes, 83-years-old Mrs. Donnelly told our reporter: “We have 47 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.”
They were married in St. Peter’s Church in 1902 by the then parish priest, Very Rev. Fr. Segrave, and on Tuesday morning sixty years later they attended 9 o’clock Mass in the same church, celebrated at their request to mark the occasion. Relatives, friends and well-wishers attended the Mass, after which Mgr. J. F. Stokes, P.P., V.G., St. Peter’s, extended congratulations to the couple.
Mr. Donnelly, the last surviving member of his family, who resided at the Rope Walk, is aged 83, and has been, in retirement for the past twelve years. He was an employee of the Gas Works for over 40 years. Mrs. Donnelly was formerly Miss Nelly O’Brien, of Chord Road, and has one sister, Mrs. Mary Murphy, Oulster Lane, who is 84.
The couple reared a family of eleven, eight of whom are alive —Messrs. John, Thomas, George ( Wigan), James, and twins Matthew and Mark Donnelly, and Mrs. M. Rafferty, Pearse Park, and Mrs. N. Farrell, 22 Greenlanes.
What does Mr. Donnelly think of to-day’s style of dancing ? “Dancing was something to look at in my younger days, but not so now.”