Touching tributes as Offaly centenarian passes away at 101

THE well known Shinrone centenarian Mabel Wallace passed away on Saturday March 8 last, peacefully in her home, at the age of 101, bringing in a number of tributes from those whose lives she touched.

Among them was the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland in Bellefield House Shinrone. The RHSI pointed out that Mabel was a very independent lady, “driving herself over to Bellefield in February to the snowdrop weekend. She often came to have coffee with the volunteers on Wednesday mornings and the documentary about her life, ‘100 Years of Change’ was a great conversation piece, giving insight into rural life as told by Mabel.”

The RHSI presented her with a very special tree (Quercus dentata ‘Karl Ferris Miller’) which she planted herself in the grounds to mark her 100th birthday.

“Community was central to Mabel’s life,” said the RHSI. “She was involved in many local activities and will be greatly missed by her many friends in RHSI Bellefield and the wider Shinrone and Birr community. Our thoughts go to her children Julian, Kathy and Edwina, her god-daughter Joanna and her extended family.”

The Royal British Legion Republic of Ireland also paid tribute: “It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Mrs. Mabel Wallace of Shinrone, Co. Offaly, at the remarkable age of 101. Mabel was a wonderful woman and a dedicated Poppy volunteer, whose kindness and commitment touched many lives. She will be deeply missed. May she rest in peace.”

The Legion recalled that in September 2019 RBL ROI District Officers and members of the Limerick and Midlands & Kildare Branches “were privileged to join the congregation of St Mary’s Church Shinrone in a celebration of 40 years of dedicated service to the Poppy Appeal in Ireland by Mabel.

"Mabel was presented with her 40 year Legion medal by Col Darren Doherty, UK Defence Attaché and a letter of congratulations to her from local TD & Minister of Justice Charlie Flanegan was read out. Mabel, whose uncle Lt John Cecil Kenny of 3 Bn RIR (18th Foot) was killed in WW1 near San Quentin, took over the Poppy collection from the wife of Col Lloyd about 1978. Every year following she travelled the breath of her county distributing poppies to local churches and homes in Offaly, collecting donations for veterans' welfare from local villages including Borisnafarney, Aghancon, Shinrone, Modreeney, Cloughjordan, Kinnitty and Dunkerrin.

"In 2019 Mabel passed the baton to her niece, Rowena Kenny. We cannot say how much Mabel has contributed to the work of the Legion over the decades but it must be considerable. The veterans of Ireland were very grateful to her for her support.”

In 2023 local filmmaker Nicholas Ryan Purcell produced an excellent documentary which focused on the life of Mabel. The documentary was called “100 Years of Change” and hundreds of people saw it and loved it in venues across the midlands.
Using details from interviews and archival material, Nicholas successfully brought to life an era long gone. This was a sometimes poignant documentary which celebrated a life fully lived. “It focusses on a resilient woman,” said Nicholas, “who inspires us.”

Many topics were discussed during the film, drawing back the veil on a world of decades ago, a world which felt very different indeed. For example Mabel recalled the old agricultural methods, such as a horse-drawn reaper and binder pulled by horses, making butter and watching a neighbour making bread in an open hearth fire. She also talked about learning essential household methods in school such as sewing and cooking, the significance of the Birr to Roscrea railway line (including loading cattle at the Sharavogue siding), and getting on the train at Brosna station near Shinrone.

Throughout the decades Mable engaged in extensive community work, including being involved with Meals on Wheels and Daffodil Day.

The Church of Ireland tradition in the rural parish of Shinrone was discussed, as well as experiencing the thrill of the Ormond Hunt and the exhilarating world of point-to-point racing.

In 2022 the weekly coffee morning held in Cloughmoyle Old schoolhouse Shinrone was filled to capacity to celebrate Mabel's 99th birthday and “to honour this remarkable Christian woman.”

Family and friends from near and far were present to hear praises led by Rev. Janet White Spunner, Canon Arthur Minion and, making the trip from Dublin, was Fr Peter McVerry, who spoke of the Christian generosity shown by Mabel to the Peter McVerry Trust for many years. Also present were Canon Ruth Gill, Rev Tom Kingston, with apologies from the Lord Abbot, who was on pilgrimage.

Right up until the end, in spite of her lofty age, Mabel still possessed an impressive level of mental acuity.

In “100 Years of Change” Mabel and the narrator John Kenny take us on a tour deep into the past, into the world of the 1920s and the decades following which were so vastly different compared with today. This was a world with many difficulties and challenges, of course, but it was also a world of fun, colour and elegance.

The film was in fact a vital historical document which recalled what living on a farm was like in the South Offaly / North Tipperary area during the early and middle decades of the 20th Century.

Mabel was born on September 18, 1923 to Harry and Winifred Kenny who lived in a lovely house with a large farm called Prospect, which was near Shinrone. Her mother was the only child of Major Henry Shepherd from Ballingarry.

Her Dad grew up in Clyduff House Roscrea.

“His world growing up,” she told me, when I interviewed her a few years ago, “was dominated by horses.”

Horses could make money for a person; they could be dangerous and had to be treated with due respect; but they also gave much enjoyment to their riders. Harry, Mabel said, felt and understood all these things. Above all, he loved being around horses and he passed on this love to his daughter who saw horseriding throughout her life as being not just a practical thing but also a wonderful way to pass one's recreational time and to detach for a while from the demands and difficulties of life.
Mable loved growing up in Prospect.

Looking back on it she felt blessed to have had a childhood like that, a childhood with loving parents, a childhood surrounded by beautiful Irish countryside and lots of horses. Prospect was a large, attractive farmhouse with about 300 acres and their lives growing up in the 1920s and 1930s were fun-filled, hardworking and, of course, so very different. “There were so many things in our lives which we take for granted now which we didn't have back in the 1920s and 1930s,” she says. “We didn't have electricity. We didn't have a car. We used a horse and trap. We acquired our first motorcar sometime in the 1930s at a time when not many people owned a car.”

In “100 Years of Change” she recalled the great excitement the whole family felt when they surveyed their new motorcar, an acquisition which opened up a whole world of new possibilities.

“Among many other things it meant we could drive to Dublin for various events, including the Spring Show in the RDS.”

They loved attending the Spring Show during which pure bred cattle were displayed, farm machinery was on sale, and there were show jumping and pony jumping events.

“I started riding at the age of three and a half and my first steed was a donkey. My brothers, Henry and George, and I pretty much ran feral across the farm and countryside until I was six or seven when a Governess, a Ms Aitkens, came into our lives and much of our freedom was curtailed.” They didn't go to the local national school in Shinrone, but instead were schooled at home by their Governess, a regime which was punctuated by meals with their parents.

The large farm at Prospect was a mixed enterprise, incorporating cattle, sheep and tillage. Six men were employed to carry out the many daily tasks on the farm.

“We had a herd of beef cattle which were taken to fairs once a month to be sold. There were no trucks of course to load them up. They had to be walked to the fairs.”

At the age of 12 she was sent to boarding school, the French School in Bray which was a top class boarding school for many years but closed its doors in the mid 1960s. The school was initially a huge shock to Mabel because for the first time she had left the confines of her Offaly home, but she soon settled in and eventually grew to enjoy her schooldays.

After leaving school she met Hume Wallace, and fell in love. They got married in 1945. Hume's Dad was a GP in Roscrea. The couple moved into Ballincor House, a big house with 450 acres, near Shinrone. Hume was an Agricultural Science graduate from Trinity.

Hume passed away in 2000 at the age of 85. After his death Mabel ran the farm in Ballincor for six years until she downsized and moved to a nearby bungalow near decent neighbours, friends and family and surrounded by the Offaly pastoral countryside which she loved so much and which she spent so much time in, still in the parish of Shinrone where she lived most of her life.