By Andy Spearman
Well know Drogheda woman Maud Keery was the centre of attention yesterday afternoon as friends, some going back a long way, and family members gathered in the Glenside Hotel to celebrate her 100th birthday.
Born Maud Gyles in Drumcar on May 23rd 1922, at the age of four Maud moved with her parents to Mary Street in Drogheda where her father Robert Gyles worked as a cooper in Cairnes’ Brewery.
Maud told Drogheda Life that her earliest memory was when she was just four years old and had just started school in St. Peter’s National School in Bolton Street.
“I remember sitting at a long table with a lot of other little children in the old St. Peter’s Church Hall in Peter Street, I think it was a Christmas party, and a tray laden with buns was passed around and a beautiful iced bun caught my eye.
“When I went to pick it up though, the tray was pushed away from me and by the time it came round again my delicious iced bun was gone!”
One of Maud’s school colleagues from Bolton Street National School from 93 years ago was at yesterday’s party, Bertie Chase, remembers the young Maud with great fondness. He said it wasn’t him that took the bun! “I wouldn’t dare” he said, “she was a lot older than me then!”
There has been much water under the viaduct since then and Maud has played a very active part in the local community and both the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church for many years and representatives of many of those organisations were present at yesterday’s party.
In 1942, at the tender age of twenty, Maud married her childhood sweetheart Jimmy Keery who had moved to Drogheda from Lisburn to work in the old Donaghy’s Mill. Jimmy hadn’t intended staying in Drogheda but fell in love and set up home with his new wife, initially at 98 Georges Street and then at Legavoreen Park.
Maud and Jimmy were married for 70 years and raised six children which of course meant they were very busy people but not too busy to play a big part in the community.
Legavoureen Park is at the top of the 101 steps and Maud reckons that having to hurry up and down these steps several times a day, sometimes carrying shopping and at other times fetching children from school or wherever, kept her fit and has contributed to her longevity.
When asked if she had heard from President Michael D. Higgins, Maud couldn’t say. “I didn’t see anything from him yet” she said. “If I do get a letter, I hope there’s a cheque in it!”
Bearing out this point, during his speech after lunch, her son-in-law Rafe Warner said that a measure of Maude’s popularity could be gauged from the “juggernaut” of post that has been delivered in the last number of days.
