100 not out... for the sixth time in family
THEY are the family who made the Guinness Book Of World Records when five siblings hit 100... now a sixth sister has hit the milestone age.
Sheila Burns (née Clarke) received her letter from President Michael D Higgins, and will today celebrate the landmark birthday with a family gathering in her daughter’s Co. Galway home.
What’s her secret? ‘Enjoying life,’ says daughter Fran Clossick, who notes that her mother – a talented step dancer in her time who performed as part of a trio with her brothers Frank and Barney – ‘loves a good party’.
Sheila Clarke was born in 1917, the youngest of 13 children born to Charles and Margaret Clarke near Loughrea, Co. Galway. She married Michael Burns in 1937 and moved to Eyrecourt, also in Co. Galway, before giving birth to five children, and the family – comprising 20 grandchildren and 34 great-grandchildren – will gather today.
Husband Michael died aged 92 in 2002, and Sheila now lives in Portumna Retirement Home.
Sheila’s siblings made the headlines in 2014 when her sister Madge Fanning turned 100. Brothers Joe, Charles, Pat and Jimmy had also clocked up a century since the turn of the millennium.
Remarkably, their mother Margaret lived until the age of 101, dying in 1975.
In 2015, the Clarke family earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for ‘the most siblings to reach the age of 100’.
‘We’re thrilled,’ said Mrs Clossick ahead of her mother’s party today. ‘It’s a wonderful age to reach, and she received a lovely letter from the President.’