World War II Blitz survivor, Margaret clocks up 100 years

She was born two weeks before the Titanic sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic but Mrs Margaret Rose Mannion is still going strong and the Galway woman recently celebrated her 100th birthday on April 1.

Margaret received a special birthday gift from the schoolchildren of Claregalway NS, who presented her with a ‘This is Your Life’ book that celebrated her life and listed significant historical events that occurred in her lifetime. This remarkable lady enjoyed a colourful life and she was living independently up on 2008, when she moved into the Mystical Rose Nursing Home in Claregalway.

Margaret was born in Lower Abbeygate in Galway to Kate and John Glennon, who were both from Claregalway, on April 1, 2012. She married Paddy Mannion when she was 18 and they had seven children. Paddy travelled to work in England in 1938 while Margaret remained in Galway with their family.

“She was here with the kids but she was restless over here on her own,” explained her son, Anthony.

“She went across with four of us to Manchester.”

However, the onset of Second World War and the bombing raids on Britain meant that it was unsafe to keep the children there. Margaret took the children back to Ireland to stay with relations before returning to England.

Paddy was subsequently conscripted and left for Europe. Margaret stayed in England and joined the Auxiliary Territory Service, the female branch of the British Army. The Blitz meant that it was a dangerous period.

“It was during the Blitz. They were all flat out. The men had all gone to war and the women ran the country.”

Margaret was primarily based in London, although she was also stationed in Northern Ireland for a spell. Despite this, this determined mother still managed to occasionally visit her children in Galway when she was given leave.

“When she used to come back to Ireland to visit us, she used to talk to us about the war and how it was in the Blitz. Then she would go back again. At that time, all the travelling was done by boat. That took a bit longer to get from London to here.”

It was a hazardous trip to make during the war but London was also a dangerous place.

“Over there at that time, it would have been terribly hard. There was the bombing and there were few men over there. They were nearly all abroad fighting.”

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.