The cat woman of Cape Clear comes home

Mary Cotter, 77, is on a mission to control the island’s cat colonies, writes Louise Roseingrave

ON a remote island outpost 70 years ago, a pint-sized animal lover earned the name Maire na gCait — Mary of the Cats.

After 40 years in England, Mary Cotter, now 77, has returned to her childhood home, the family farmhouse on Cape Clear, where she keeps a colony of 25 feral cats.