Athlone woman celebrates her 105th birthday

Former businesswoman and community worker May Green celebrated her 105th birthday recently, surrounded by her extended family and friends in Arcadia, Athlone.

The former proprietor of The Cova shop in Arcadia was greeted with well-wishers visiting on the day, as well as a mass held in her home in her honour.

The mass was officiated by her nephew, African missionary priest Monsignor John Roche, who is also from Arcadia, Athlone.

May Green, who was born on March 29, 1912, three weeks before RMS Titanic sailed, was the former May Kilroy, from a farm in rural Arcadia.

May has spent most of her 105 years living on the One Mile, among the Arcadia community.

May is widowed and her late husband Jack Green died in 1990. She has two sons, Desmond and Eamon Green.

She has one surviving sister, 100-year-old Alice Egan, who also lives close by in Arcadia. She also has grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.

May built The Cova shop on the site of her family’s farm, in Arcadia, in 1948, and the shop, which was ran for many decades by her son Eamon and his wife, Nancy was eventually closed by the Green family in 2015.

May has had a most interesting life these past 105 years. In 1920, as an eight-year-old girl, May stepped over hoses and muddy water, and was close to the smoke and flying sparks of the burning Westmeath Independent building in Garden Vale, which had been set alight by the Black and Tans.

After she got married, she went to live in London, and survived many bombing raids in the 1940s war blitz.

In the 1960s, May was involved in working with St Vincent de Paul, and the Traveller movement of the time in Athlone.

May was an Athlone People of the Year nominee in 2005, the year, she and her sisters, Madge and Alice brought out their joint autobiography, ‘Growing Up in Arcadia’.

May’s sister Madge Roche, mother of Monsignor Roche died in December 2010.
Monsignor Roche gave special blessings to his 105-year-old aunt at her special birthday mass at her home.

“She has been an icon of life, a long life, and we give thanks for the particular way she has expressed and loved and lived in that unique way,” said the Monsignor.

“Her life is a real celebration of God’s goodness and May’s goodness, and she has shared that with all who have come in contact with her.”

There were many tributes paid to May Green on the day of her 105th birthday by her extended family and friends.