Centenarian recalls observing Nazi atrocities and her encounters with Kitty Kiernan

Doreen Keane with her son Barry Keane and Dr David Mahoney at her 100th birthday celebration in Dungarvan Community Hospital.

From having to observe the atrocities carried out by Nazi Germany during the Second World War to her dealings with Kitty Kiernan, it has been a busy century for Doreen Keane.

She has been celebrated for reaching treble figures in Dungarvan Community Hospital, with a letter from President Michael D Higgins congratulating her for playing an "important part in shaping and crafting the world" we live in today.

Doreen Byrne was born the youngest of five siblings in Inchicore, Dublin on September 3, 1922. Her mother Mary was a teacher and her father Thomas was a map maker at the Ordnance Survey office.

Her son Barry told those gathered for the celebration that Doreen was raised "in a singing household" with weekly sing-alongs of the popular songs of the time.

In the 1940s, Doreen's involvement in the Irish Film Institute archive in Dublin meant she had access to and observed the atrocities carried out by Nazi Germany through the classified films that passed through.

She was a personal secretary to Felix Cronin, then general manager for the newly established Irish Fuel Board. It was there that she often met Cronin’s wife Kitty Kiernan, formerly engaged to rebel leader Michael Collins.

Later, during a decade working at the US Embassy in Dublin, she often heard the "sad stories of separation" of emigrants, as families were refused visas on health grounds, with TB "rampant".

In 1958, Doreen married publishing executive Desmond Keane in Dublin and they moved to London, with Barry born in 1963.

Looking for a change, they settled in Dungarvan in the mid-1970s. They bought The Moon Duster pub on O’Connell St, which they ran for five years, but Desmond's surprise passing in 1978 saw Doreen on her own with teenager Barry.

She went back to work at Waterford Co-Op, until retirement in 1992.

Retirement has been divided between bridge, painting, and travel, with Malaysia, North America, and Dubai all crossed off.

Describing her as a "fiercely independent and strong" woman, Barry said she has been an inspiration for him, sentiments that were echoed by director of nursing, Paula French, who said Doreen is a "great advertisement" for hitting the century mark.

In his letter, the president wrote that the world we live in today would have been "unimaginable" on the day of her birth.

"You have played your own important part in shaping and crafting the world we live in today, bringing your own energy, experience and wisdom to your work, family and community life."

Doreen, thanking a gathering at the hospital for their good wishes, singled out hospital staff for praise.

"Everyone has been so nice and so kind. Dungarvan Community Hospital is a wonderful facility and there are great people here. I am so comfortable here, I almost feel that I am not 100 years old."