Elizabeth Lyons was baptised in St Mary’s Church on Athlunkard Street, Limerick city, as the country entered a bloody civil war in 1922.
One hundred years on, the great-great-grandmother was guest of honour at a recent concert at the same parish church to switch on the fairy lights on a giant Christmas tree.
“I’m all my life in the parish, I was christened here in the old church, and I’m still living just around the corner,” said Mrs Lyons, who goes to 10 o’clock mass every day.
The mother of 12 has “forty-something grandchildren; fifty-something great-grandchildren; two great-great grandchildren and another on the way”, said her daughter, Margaret.
Her late husband’s Martin was in the army, and then worked on steam ships in England.
There is longevity on the female side of the family, as her own great-grandmother lived to be 99; her grandmother was 96 and most of her sisters lived into their 90s
Mrs Lyons said her secret to her youthful appearance is “soap and water, no make-up, no lipstick, and a bit of moisturising cream at night”.
“I never took life easy, I always kept going... hard work, I don’t sit down much.”
Margaret said: “She always had a great appetite, she has a glass of milk everyday, plenty of veg and sometimes she might have glass of Guinness.”
“The doctor told her at one time, for a tonic to build herself up to take the Guinness - so she used to put it in her milk.”
Fr Richard Davern, St Mary’s PP, said he hoped Mrs Lyons’ continuing community spirit and their Christmas tree would “lift the spirits of people in these dark times”.