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Nonie still in good voice at 100

This article is from page 77 of the 2010-02-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 77 JPG

SEVEN children, 26 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren and one great great grandchild joined Nonie Lynch in the celebration of her 100 birthday CPN UBC MEO UTM ONLO)ILNO

Born on February 5, 1910, Nonie has seen more than her fair share of changes throughout her life. Formerly Comerford, she moved to Cloghan- more, in the shadow of Mount Cal- lan, in the 1700s.

The youngest of 12 children, Nora or Nonie Comerford was born to R1- chard Crawford and his wife Mary Linehan. When she was old enough, Nonie attended Letterkelly National School and was a child during the war of independence and the civil ene

Indeed, Nonie was 10 years old when the Rineen ambush took place in 1920. Less than a month later her eldest brother John was killed in an ambush in Four Mile House in Ros- common.

As the youngest child it fell to No- nie to stay home and look after here parents. Her mother, Mary, died in 1929 ages 66 while her father Rich- ard passed away the following year lion Ap

Like so many on the early years of the state the Comerford family has hit be emigration. First to go was No- nie’s sister Nellie who moved to New York where she was later joined by brothers Pat and Dan.

In 1942 Nonie emigrated herself, this time down the road to Kilmurry Ibrickane where she married Paddy Lynch. They made a happy life to- gether for 47 years and had seven children; Jim, Joe , Matt, Mary, Ter- esa, Claire and Patrick.

Her eighties brought a new lease of life to Nonie who, prompted by her friend Nell Gleeson, she began to sing the old songs of her youth.

She quickly became a regular on Sunday nights at Gleeson’s where the songs included The Galway Shawl, The Tri-Coloured Ribbon and The Flag of Sinn Fein became the order of each evening.

The late Tom Munnelly soon be- came aware of Nonie’s talents and recorded her for the National Folk- lore Library at UCD. These record- ings led to Nonie being featured in the prestigious Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing in 2002.

She also became a star of the Clare Festival of Traditional Singers which took place in Ennistymon and in

Spanish Point.

Nonie was joined by scores of friends and family members to cel- ebrate one hundred years last week.

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