Independent People: May Green

Throughout the world, there can be but a few businesswomen who are still working in their 98th year, but Athlone's May Green has always been special. The Athlone shopkeeper, who in the early years of the last century encountered the Black and Tans and survived World War 11 bombing raids in London, is a local legend, after a life that has packed in more experiences than many would encounter in three lifetimes. May Green (nee Kilroy), who was born in 1912, the year the Titanic sank, grew up in Arcadia, Athlone, at a time when the area was 'out the country', and encompassed a few small farms, including the Kilroy homestead. May and her sisters, Madge and Alice, who are still hale and hearty, had five brothers, Peter, Paddy, Johnny, Vinnie and Freddie, all of whom are now deceased. May was married to the late Jack Green from Dublin, and is mother of Desmond and Eamon, and for over 60 years, she has been a constant presence in the Cova shop, on the site of the old Kilroy farm. She still regularly works in the shop, which is an example to people many decades her junior. Her fascinating life story has been recounted before in great detail, in the biography, 'Growing Up in Arcadia' - which May, Madge and Alice wrote together five years ago. The Cova grocery shop has been a landmark in Arcadia, Ballymahon Road and Cloghanboy since its inception in 1948. May had gone through many life changes in the years beforehand, particularly when she and her husband and two young children lived through the London blitz of World War 2. "Our home growing up in Arcadia had an open hearth and turf fire, with a crane, pot hooks and a handle, where my mother made griddle bread, and during the apple season, we had lots of apple pies and tarts, and also some rhubarb tarts, and our fire burned continuously," said May. "My father had a pig killed and preserved each year, and our door had a half door as well as a full door, which was closed to keep the dog, hens and chickens outside. We had an oil lamp on the wall over the kitchen table, and a tiny red lamp under the Sacred Heart picture." May's father, Peter once put up a maybush and filled it with flowers for May Day, and more than 90 years later, May Green maintains that tradition. Each May 1st, she spreads the path outside the Cova with flowers to celebrate the holy day. May's mother was Alice Turner from Gleeson Street. After May married Jack, the couple settled in London, where Jack was working as a Quantity Surveyor. They had their first child, Desmond in 1939 and when the war started to take off; May greatly feared the air raids which were beginning to happen over London. The Green family lived in Bexley, and were supplied with gas masks, helmets and ration books, and the practice of listening to the loud air raid sirens soon became the norm. "The sirens were always a foreboding of trouble, but more alarming in many ways was the barking and wailing of dogs. The moment the siren went off, the dogs wailed and wailed and at night windows were covered with no hint of light," she said. The Greens had a bomb shelter in their garden, but rarely got any sleep through the night-time bombings, except for dozing through the noises of the explosions. When shopping, she had to usually run between bomb shelters, and one day a bomber dived straight down and splattered the road with bullets in front of her. "I ran just in time to escape the bullets, which hit the sidewall of the house," she said. "I took great inspiration from Winston Churchill at the time, and his phrase, 'Do it Now'. It is important to leave nothing on the long finger. Even to this day it can be applied to the most simple and complex situations." She said there was great camaraderie in the shelters, which included singing songs, reading, and praying by candle light. Another time, Jack encouraged May to stay in a telephone box in Euston Station, London with Desmond during a bombing, because of it being the safest place. She remained there for three hours. Jack arrived home one day in a bad state of shock having gone from shelter to shelter all night long, and having seen dead people taken out of rubble. "I think he never recovered from that night and that dreadful day, and he suffered from shock as a result," said May. May returned to her family in Athlone, for the birth of Eamon, while Jack went to work in the English midlands which were a much safer area. Jack was sent to Belfast as a member of the War Damage Commission to estimate the damage done by the German bombings in Belfast. It was there Jack's condition deteriorated and necessitated medical treatment. His condition didn't improve and he had to be hospitalised. He was admitted as a patient to St. Ita's Hospital, Portrane. He spent most of his life there, having not recovered, and May faithfully visited her husband every week there until he died in 1990. In 1948, after she felt that Jack would not recover sufficiently to come home, May began her plan to build the Cova shop on the family farm. At the time she read a book about Fatima and about the area of the apparition there being called the Cova. "Instantly the name attracted me, and instantly the Athlone Cova was born," she said. The shop built up bit by bit, and to sell sugar and tea, May had to divide it carefully from large boxes. "There was no such thing as sellotape in those days, so the tea and sugar packets had to be closed in a specialised way, in brown paper bags so the product wouldn't spill afterwards," she said. The shop was originally at the front room of the current family home in Arcadia, and as the local population increased, the shop grew in size and stature, and products became more varied with the years. For more than 60 years, the Cova has had a family feel to it, with May and her son Eamon, and later his wife, Nancy, running the Arcadia shop seven days a week, catering for the needs of local and passing trade. The business is one of the last of the old family shops on the outskirts of Athlone May fondly remembers the many customers over the decades from Glasson, Tubberclair, and Drumraney and other parts of South Westmeath. "I've lived through many recessions over the past 90 or more years of Irish history, and let it be a lesson to all people today to know, they can work their way out of recession, and no matter what downturn occurs, it can always be worked through, and it is important to have hope and determination for the future,'" said May.