Anne celebrates 103rd birthday
Anne Downey from Mountbaganal was just one year old when the Spanish Flu swept through Ireland, killing 23,000 people and affecting some 800,000 people. Now she is celebrating her 103 birthday today, June 12, in lockdown due the COVID-19 pandemic. Anne still lives at home and her son Patrick, who had travelled from Australia before the lockdown, will be helping her mark the occasion.
While there were great celebrations to mark Anne’s milestone birthday three years ago, with a big birthday party in Carlingford, things will be much quieter, says Patrick.
Anne was the eldest of 11 children of John and Margaret (nee Eaton) Doherty of Gyles Quay road, Riverstown. Four of her sisters, Gretta, Bernie,Phil and Josie are still alive.
She attended Ramparts National School then took a position of nanny and governess to children of the Gaskin family in Dundalk.
After several similar roles she found herself working with the family of a race horse prominent trainer of the day, Tommy Nugent, initially in Meath and then in Kildare when the business moved to The Curragh.
It was here that she met her future husband Paddy Downey and eventually they both ended up working for the Urquhart family who ran a stud and mixed farming business. They got married in 1945 and had four children - two sons and two daughters. The couple lived in Kilcullen after Paddy’s retired and enjoyed over 60 years of marriage until he died in 2009 aged 91.
Anne always had a passion for gardening, with Patrick recalling that she grew ‘enough vegetables to feed the whole neighbourhood.’ Her flowers won her many awards down the years and she also kept bees.
Although she is no longer able to garden, Patrick says she enjoys getting out and going for spins to Gyles Quay, Omeath and Dundalk. ‘She loves getting out of the house.’ Anne always loved travelling, making her first overseas trip in the 1930s to Bournemouth in England, with the family she was working with at the time.
After her four children Tony, Mary, Patrick and Garielle all emigrated, she made regular trips to visit them in Australia, Holland and London . She has also visited New Zealand, the Middle East, America and Europe.
‘She went to Paris for her 90th birthday,’ says Patrick.
Nowadays, despite the fact that they all live abroad, her children take turns at travelling home from Ireland to spend time with her.