This article is from page 3 of the 2006-03-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
KILRUSH said goodbye to its most senior citizen last week.
Just 24 days shy of her 104th birthday, Mai McMahon passed away in her home, having contracted the winter vomiting bug 25 hours earlier.
The mother of nine, grandmother of 27 and great-grandmother of 28, lived an active life right to the end, even though her walking had declined in the last year.
The secret to the long life of Kilrush’s oldest citizen included an annual visit to Knock up until the age of 100, taking a trip to America at the age of 99 and keeping an active interest in politics and current affairs.
Born Mai Googan in Tullycrine in 1902, she was the second oldest of nine children. She married Patrick McMahon in 1925 at the age of 23 and moved to Kilmurry McMahon. There she reared her nine children, eight of whom survived their long-living mother.
During her many decades in Kilmurry McMahon, Mai ran a small shop two doors down from the church while helping her husband run the family farm.
The hard-working West Clare woman buried her husband, Patrick, 34 years ago, at the age of 72.
Just a few years later, she moved to Vandeleur Street in Kilrush to live with her daughter.
Living in Kilrush, Mai went to Mass every day and the devout woman made an annual trip to the shrine in Knock up to her centenary year.
A keen knitter and talented at crocheting, Mai also kept abreast of current affairs, reading the newspapers every day and keeping up to date with the news right up to the end of her 104 years.
The active pensioner baked bread until she was 100 years old, and is one of the few people ever to say they collected the old age pension with all of their children.
Mai’s son Martin died just over a year ago and she also buried one grandchild, Mary McMahon, in her lifetime.
While her family were expecting Mai to pass away, it still came as a shock to them in the end.
“It was a shock but not a surprise,” said her granddaughter Marian McMahon Jones.
Marian is a member of Kilrush Town Council, and this month’s meeting of the council was postponed as a mark of respect to Kilrush’s eldest citizen.