Mary off to flying start on bucket list

They say two out of three ain’t bad, and for 80-year-old Mary McCarthy, a birthday gift from her grandchildren meant fulfilling two of three ambitions.

The octogenarian, from Model Village, Dripsey, Co Cork, took to the skies in a light aircraft for a flying lesson and fulfilled a life-long dream by circling her home village a hair-raising seven times.

Her daughter, Mary Buckley, said that her mother was the talk of the town after her latest adventure.

Always one to rise to the occasion, Mary was not a bit nervous and was “extremely happy” that she had realised one of her dreams.

“Mum was 80 on St Patrick’s Day,” her daughter said. “She is very outgoing but has a heart condition. There is a blockage and they can’t operate so if anything were to happen it would mean sudden death.

“We told them about that before she went up and they said as long as she brought along her heart spray then it would be fine.”

The plane’s pilot, George McTaggert, was so impressed with Mary he brought her to meet his boss at Atlantic Flight Centre, and put her picture up on the centre’s Facebook page.

“I am always trying to hold her back and slow her down but she is wild by nature, I think. She is always out and about and was very involved with the community and the GAA and still helps out every Monday night,” her daughter said.

She also revealed what else was on her mother’s bucket list.

“My mother always said she’d love to go on a cruise if she ‘won the sweeps’. That didn’t happen but we saved up and brought her on a cruise some years back. Another big dream was to fly, and so her grand-children decided they would grant this wish.”

But there is a third wish — to spin the wheel on Winning Streak.

“She has a list of people who she would bring up on the bus and says she doesn’t care about winning money, just to bring everyone up and spin the wheel.”