Connemara native celebrates 100th birthday with reflections on a life well lived

And as sprightly Maura Joyce from Maam Valley celebrated her 100th birthday this week, she reflected on a fulfilling life that naturally had its ups and downs along the way but overall the centenarian has some fond memories which she regularly shares with family and friends.

She was delighted to be the centre of attention, surrounded by her three daughters and extended family for the occasion of her birthday which took place at her daughter Joan Shine’s house in Claregalway where Maura now resides.

Maura was born on September 28 1921 to John and Anne King and reared in Raigha in Maam Valley along with her two older brothers Micheál and Seán.

She remembers a very happy childhood as her parents owned the local shop and often spoke about the way her mother ran the store and how she was a great businesswoman as well as being a wonderful housekeeper.

Her father ran the farm and was also a shoemaker, making and mending boots and shoes for all in the neighbouring villages.

She said he was the kindest man that anyone could ever meet – and she remembers how, if people were too poor to pay, he just took whatever they could give or didn’t charge them at all.

Having attended school in Tiernakill NS in Maam, Maura loved history and geography and her daughters say that she had the most beautiful handwriting.

It was Maura who transcribed all the Irish stories, gathered from the local area by the school children, for the National Folklore Collection, the originals of which are currently stored in UCD.

After her brothers left home to work in post offices in different parts of the country, she attended the Rural Domestic Economy School in Clifden in 1938 and to the Munster Institute in Cork in 1940 to train for what would eventually be Domestic Science teaching.

However, within a short time, her father became unwell and she came back to Raigha to help run the shop and farm. He passed away a few years later from what would now be a treatable disease, high blood pressure.

During her teenage years and into her twenties, she spoke about being in the Irish Red Cross and how everyone cycled everywhere at the time. She thought nothing of cycling to Westport or Claremorris and if she got a puncture, someone would always come along and help.

Maura was in her early thirties when she married Jack Joyce, who played the violin and sang at the dances while he also played the organ in the church.

“Imagine, he used to come into the shop from when he was 14 years old and I never thought that he was the one I would marry,” she said.

Daughter Ann Hughes, who is married to Pat and lives in Roscahill, described him as the nicest man and the best father anyone could ask for.

Maura and Jack were living in the old house with her mother when they had their first two children, Marian (now Marian Halpenny, married to Pat and living in Meath) and Joan (married to Mike Shine in Claregalway).

By the time Ann was born, they had moved into a new house, most of which was built by their father Jack. Maura often recalled the excitement of having electricity for the first time.

“Dad was working full time in the forestry, and they still had a small farm. We could not have grown up in a happier home,” Ann said.

Family meant everything to Maura. She cooked and baked and produced the most delicious dinners using the fresh ingredients from her garden.

During summers, the family had lots of visitors – and no matter how busy Maura was with the hay and turf, she always made time to cater for them too.

By the time her children finished their education and left home to work, Maura cared for her own mother who lived to the grand old age of 98.

Maura and Jack were proud to attend the weddings of their three daughters and were overjoyed when their first grandchild Ronan (Marian’s son) was born. Several years later, granddaughters Linda and Karen (Ann’s children) arrived. Linda Hughes is a meteorologist and a familiar face to television viewers, as one of RTÉ’s weather presenters.

Eventually as they got older, and after much thought, Maura and Jack sold their few acres of land and as they approached their eighties, they made the biggest decision of all when they moved out of their beloved house and went to live in a new apartment that Joan and her husband Mike had built for them adjoining their own home in Cloone, Claregalway.

Jack was still in fairly good health, and they had a few enjoyable years there before he passed away when he was 85. They were over 50 years married and Maura was broken-hearted and talked about him constantly as she missed him so much.

But she was strong and had great faith and by the time she celebrated her 90th birthday, she had two great grandchildren, Harry and Holly and thinks the world of them.

When she was 91, she broke her hip, had to have an operation and spent weeks learning to walk again. Her determination saw her through despite the fact that she required a walking aid.

She has suffered a number of health problems since then but still read newspapers and magazines while her eyesight allowed. Now, she likes to watch the news and does her best to keep up with what is going on in the world.

Maura still has a great interest in people and loves to stay in touch with her relations, her neighbours and her old friends from Maam.