Ireland’s oldest person dies at the age of 109

Kitty Jeffery, who was born on November 12, 1914, died peacefully in Cork University Hospital

Richie Cronin, Minister of Trinity Cork and Aghada Presbyterian Churches and the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, left, and Rt Rev Dr Sam Mawhinney, right, visiting Kitty Jeffery just before her 109th birthday last November.

Kitty Jeffery, who is widely believed to have been Ireland’s oldest person, has died at the age of 109.

Ms Jeffery, who was born on November 12, 1914, died peacefully in Cork University Hospital (CUH) on Thursday with family at her bedside.

Kitty with her daughter Anne, and her sons Norman, Ivor, and George.

She assumed the remarkable title of Ireland’s oldest person following the death last September of Mairin Hughes, who was born on May 22, 1914, two months before the outbreak of the First World War. Ms Hughes passed away at her nursing home in Dublin where she had lived since her early 70s.

Once Ms Jeffery turned 109 last November, she assumed the title.

Her father, James Clancy, who was originally from Ballyorgan in Limerick, emigrated to Australia in the 1800s in search of work but returned to Ireland along with his eldest sibling Kate and got a job as assistant manager, and later manager, of farmland at Glenville Manor in north Cork.

He later met and married Anne Mills, from Ballynoe in East Cork, and the couple had two children, Bill and Kitty, who was born in Glenville in 1914, just three weeks before the outbreak of World War I.

She was raised as a member of the Church of Ireland in a largely Catholic area but thanks to excellent community relations in the area, and thanks to a progressive school which her family describes as an early proponent of the ‘educate together’ model, she enjoyed a happy childhood, mixing freely with her Catholic friends.

Kitty  with her daughter Anne, and her sons Norman, Ivor, and George.

She lived through some of the biggest events in recent Irish history, bearing witness to some of the turbulent events of the Irish War of Independence, the “dreadful times” of the Civil War, and she recalled hearing news of the shooting dead of Michael Collins in 1922.

She remembered one night during the  War of Independence when a British soldier rode into their farmyard looking for ‘local volunteers’ and recalls him riding off again after being told that there was nobody there, and also how when people came to burn the manor, locals stood up for the Clancy family and said: “No these are good people in Glenville, they’ve always looked after us”.

Following the death of her father in her mid-teens, Kitty and her family moved to Turner’s Cross in Cork City, where she completed a secretarial course in the School of Commerce and worked in various places in the city, including as a secretary in Jacksons, a gown shop in the Queen’s Old Castle until she met and married George Jeffery.

Kitty and George Jeffery on their wedding day.

The couple then moved to Cloyne, where they had four children, Ivor, Norman, George, and Anne, but sadly, Norman died in 2022.

Kitty became very well-known in the community as a member of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association, the Mother’s Union, and later as a frequent attendee of local country markets, famous for his chutneys.

She spent most of her older years living in Cloyne, where she was cared for by her family.

She is survived by her children and four grandchildren.

Her funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.