The Aran islander, Mrs Bridget Dirrane, who recently published her memoirs at the age of 103 is about to break another record. Not only has she been wife to two brothers, but she is set to become the oldest person in Ireland to be awarded an honorary degree.
In a break with tradition, the degree-conferring ceremony will be hosted by NUI Galway today in the St Francis Community Nursing Unit, Newcastle, Galway, where Mrs Dirrane now lives. The Master of Arts honoris causa is to be given to her by NUI Galway's president, Dr Patrick Fottrell, in recognition of "her rich and varied life and her service to others".
Mrs Dirrane, whose biography, A Woman of Aran, was written by Jack Mahon, is not particularly excited about receiving "the cap and the gown". Nor is she surprised by the honour. "I take things as they come."
She's been taking things as they come during some of the most turbulent events of this century, including the Easter Rising and both World Wars. The youngest of eight children, she was born Bridget Gillan on Inis Mor on November 15th, 1894.
She met the 1916 rising leader, Padraig Pearse, on Inis Mor, and remembers Eamon Ceannt, one of the 1916 Proclamation signatories, and volunteers, Joseph Mary Plunkett and Thomas Ashe. During the War of Independence she was arrested by the Black and Tans.
Mrs Dirrane was imprisoned in the Bridewell and later in Mountjoy Jail, where she went on hunger-strike. There she witnessed the hanging of Kevin Barry and Thomas Whelan.
She emigrated to the US in 1927 and married Ned Dirrane, also an Aran islander, in Boston. However, her husband died of heart failure. After 39 years in Boston, where she became active in politics and canvassed for the Kennedy family, she returned to Inis Mor where she lived with her brother-in-law, Pat Dirrane, a widower and father of three sons.
To "protect their good name" the couple married.
She attributes her longevity to green vegetables and three Fs, fruit, fish and plenty of fibre.