Kitty (97) says biggest changes is decline in number of shops

By Ciara O'Hara

Kitty Flynn, who turns 97 in April, still lives in her childhood home, on Main Street, Kilbeggan. Growing up in the centre of the town was "quite pleasant". Then, the famous horse races weren’t as frequent. "There was just the one race really, in May, and we all looked forward to it." But Kitty says the "biggest change" is "the decline in the number of shops".

"Years ago, the street was full of families, and most of them had shops. And there were lots of children, and we all went to school together, but now there’s no families… That all finished long ago. Most of those people have all passed on and their descendants don’t live here any more… But you could say the same about every village and town.

"I have a great memory, thank goodness," says Kitty, who can vividly recall primary school. "Each side of the school, there were weeping willow trees. They were there for years and years; I remember them so well. And then in the senior infants and first class, there weren’t many rooms, but I remember there was a harmonium in one of the rooms, and one of the nuns, as we went into the room, and as we were leaving, and as we were changing about from one class to the next, she always played, ‘O’Donnell Abú’."

The 1932 election also stands out. "Now, when I say I can recall it. It doesn’t mean I recall details of it, but my friends and I, we were always wandering around from shop to shop, and people would be talking about this. And while we weren’t actually listening, things dropped into our ears just the same about it… It was terribly bitter at the time; I can remember that about it. Although we didn’t understand why, we knew there was some kind of a bitterness going on… And then there was a 1937 election. I remember that too, because the boys school, which was down the street a bit, they had a band. And they were brought in to Mullingar to play for De Valera to come from the train station up to the middle of Mullingar, where he was going to talk to the people."

Kitty’s father, Edward Flynn, was born and raised in Kilbeggan, while her mother, Agnes Brennan, was from Castletown Geoghegan. "I think my mother and father were married in 1918, the year the Great War ended, in the month the Great War ended… I never asked Mammy how she met him… At that time, you know, people from Castletown Geoghegan used to come in to Kilbeggan a lot to shop and so on. And that was before people got bicycles or cars, but they used to come to Kilbeggan a lot."

Edward was a farmer but, "as a young man, he went to America, and he was in the American navy for a period, and he came home then". Edward had two brothers who also emigrated to America. "We don’t know what happened to them. I think the two of them died shortly after going there, William and George. And then he had another brother, Daniel. And he was killed during the Great War, in Salonika."

When Kitty’s mother moved to Kilbeggan after getting married, she "immediately fell into the rhythm of life".

"And she got to know everybody. And, of course, she was here in Kilbeggan during the War of Independence. And she got to know the McGuinnesses very well. The McGuinnesses were volunteers and Seán McGuinness was chief of the volunteers. He was in charge of the IRA in North Offaly… Then after the war, he came back to live in Kilbeggan, in a place called Ard na Glu, and he used to visit my mother a lot. He was a very nice man altogether, Seán McGuinness."

Edward and Agnes had six children, four boys and two girls. Her brothers were all older than her and Kitty was the second youngest. "I’m the only one of them that’s left now." Her mother lived until 1982. "I think she must have been 86 when she died, but my father was dead long before that. He died just after the war, the Second World War. I think he had Alzheimer’s, although we didn’t know what it was at the time." During World War II, Kitty attended a boarding school in Moate where "they never spoke about" the war.

After finishing school in 1947, Kitty went to England. "I was working for an oil company there, Kuwait Oil Company." On the boat over, she met "a lovely girl", Maureen Flannagan from Dun Laoghaire.

"And she was an extremely cultivated and cultured young girl, very much so… She introduced me to a lot of things, such as going to classical concerts, and also going to visit great art." The pair became great friends and every Sunday, they explored London’s National Gallery together; Maureen "never missed it if she could help it".

Kitty grew familiar with the gallery’s great works of art. "I love the Constables… oh, they’re absolutely gorgeous. And there’s loads of them… And I like the English painters: Joshua Reynolds and George Stubbs, he drew horses mainly. And Turner, the lovely watercolours. They only show them once a year, in January… because the light would affect the colours so much." Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait made a huge impression. "Everything about that painting, everything is sumptuous. The decor and all inside… and they’re beautifully dressed… As far as I remember, they had a little dog as well. I think around the mid-1430s it was painted… It’s beautiful. I absolutely love it. Oh, she had a gorgeous green frock with white fur."

Kitty and her friend Maureen remained in each other’s lives.

"Maureen married my brother Willie in England… and they lived out in Hertfordshire in a place called Stevenage. But both of them died a good while ago." After 20 years in London, an illness brought Kitty back to Kilbeggan in the 1960s.

Although Kitty "loved" England, moving home wasn’t a huge adjustment. "Sure, look, you have to make the most of where you are, wherever it is." Once she had made a full recovery, Kitty and her younger sister Theresa turned the family home into a popular guest house and restaurant. It stayed open until the 1980s, closing around the time of their mother’s death.

Kitty remembers "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland being bad for business. "We used to have a lot of visitors from the north of Ireland during the summer, lovely people, and they all stopped coming here then… it had an awful effect on the visitors." In the 1980s, Kitty was part of a local group responsible for restoring Locke’s Distillery and opening it to the public. The museum is now one of the top tourist attractions in the midlands.

Kitty and Theresa "absolutely loved" day trips to Dublin, travelling on the now discontinued Dublin to Galway service that passed through Kilbeggan.

"I think we went nearly every week… we used to go to Roches Stores and places like that, all the shops… The bus used to go through Kilcock… and I remember this so well; they were agitating for a car park in Kilcock… There were big posters up all over the place, and I remember one very clearly and it said, ‘A car park is a human right’. And I thought, well God almighty, their idea of a human right – a car park! It never left my memory, from years and years ago in Kilcock. ‘A car park is a human right.’ Such a ridiculous thing to say. So, I don’t know how they got on to human rights afterwards in Kilcock."

After visiting the shops, Kitty and Theresa would head home "early in the afternoon". "And lo and behold, that the bus driver didn’t put on Radio Éireann, and there was Marian Finucane and this ghastly, what do you call it, Liveline. Oh, I hated it. I liked Marian Finucane, but I didn’t like this programme… it’s the whinging all the time."

Kitty was "delighted" when Mary Robinson was elected Ireland’s first female president. "I remember Charlie Bird on the radio, talking about how she was doing. Nobody expected her to get in that time. And he was talking about her down in a place called Ballinamuck. And he was saying, ‘Anyway, down here in Ballinamuck, they’re going to vote for Mary Robinson.’"

Kitty’s sister Theresa married Noel Moran from Milltownpass and they had a son and a daughter, Margaret and John. Tragically, about 30 years ago, when she was only in her 50s, Theresa was hit by a lorry outside Kitty’s front door. "And that was a big blow to everyone."

In the years that followed, Kitty’s brother-in-law Noel moved in with Kitty and converted part of the house into a hardware store. Noel’s sister, Lil Moran, calls out to Kitty almost every day. "I’m not a carer as such; I never did training… I wouldn’t be doing this only Kitty is family… She is wonderful… It’s a pleasure to look after her," says Lil.

Friends for more than 50 years, Kitty and Lil have enjoyed many "good times" through the decades, especially when Kitty and Therese used to visit Lil in London. Lil grew up in Milltownpass, and like Kitty’s father, Lil’s father also lived in America in his youth. "

He came back on holidays with his parents, and he fell in love with my mother, and he did leave to go back but he changed his mind at the port… He came back and they got married. I know my mother was only 16 when she married him, and proceeded to have 13 children, and that was nothing in them days! I remember all my brothers and sisters in the one bed. My brothers were sleeping in the bottom of the bed, and my sisters were sleeping at the top of the bed."

"Everybody was poor then, more or less, say 90% of the population, except for the doctor in Milltownpass, or the teacher, you know, everybody else was in the same predicament as we were… When I left school, I was 10, and I couldn’t add or anything because my dad became an invalid and we all had to get out to work."

Nevertheless, life "was good" for Lil and her siblings. "Much better than the times now, do you know that? Seriously, we had great fun and there was no violence… none of that, you wouldn’t hear tell of it. Walk to school in the bare feet."

After Lil’s father had a stroke, her older brother Frank moved home to help her mother take care of the family. "And we had no electricity and no bathroom or anything in our house… and he got the electricity on, and we thought it was a wonderful thing to do. And he continued to live there till we were reared; he was a very good brother."

Frank worked for a farmer and frequently cycled to Mullingar in the evenings when courting Liz, who later became his wife. On the way home, he often "got a puncture". "And he had to walk, and then head off straight to work then when he came in." After they married, Frank and Liz were instrumental in establishing Milltownpass Football club.

In the 1970s, when she was just 18, Lil left Milltownpass for London, where she was a successful publican for nearly 40 years. Lil had never worked in a pub before going to England but "wasn’t long about learning". "When I went, I had no money. I had no clothes; I went with a little plastic carry bag… I got the job off the advertising here on some paper… and I applied, and they said to come for an interview." The manager of the pub was a man from Tyrrellspass called Aidan Browne. "And he said, ‘I’ll give you a month’s trial,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, God!’ In them days, the tills, they were not computerised… they were all add in your head… " Lil will never forget her first day of work in a busy pub and customers ordering "two gin and tonics, three pints of Guinness, two bottles of orange…" all in one go.

"But I’ll tell you, I picked it like that, and that’s the truth, and I couldn’t get over it myself that I picked it, but I had to work hard – a busy pub, like… So, a month was up, anyway, and Aidan said, ‘Come into the office.’ I never will forget it. ‘You told me a lie,’ he said. And of course, I could feel my face like a tomato. I said, ‘Not a fear did I tell you a lie! About what, like?’ He said, ‘You’re an excellent barmaid, but you must have worked in a pub before.’

"I started off as a barmaid and then I ended up as a relief manager for the company… they had pubs all over England… Then they offered me my own pub to run. Then after about seven years, they gave me a bigger pub."

A pub lease lasted 20 years and "when that finished, it was another 20 years". "And I said, ‘No, I’m going home. I wanted to go home. I’d just had enough… you always want to go home, don’t you?"

Back in Ireland, Lil bumped into a former customer in Mullingar. "He had a pub in Mayo. He was in the construction business in England and his wife was running the pub, but she didn’t have much experience." So Lil moved to Mulranny and was there for three years until the owners split up, and the pub was sold.

Being a publican was a "great education" but seeing so many inebriated people put Lil off drinking "to a certain extent". "You’d see them as one person coming in and you see them as another going out."

She never became romantically involved with anyone who came into the pub because "it might upset things and you wouldn’t know who they were; they could be married men or anything".

“Sometimes you’d see them coming in with their wives and a week later coming in with another one, you know what I mean? Put you off men for life!" But when Lil bumped into another regular from her pub in London on the streets of Mullingar, she thought "this must be meant to be". Jimmy is originally from Devlin, and they both live in Mullingar now. "We have no children of our own. But he had three children… they were very small when we got together… and they have grandchildren, so it ended up quite well for me, really… And altogether, I’m here about 15 years caring for Kitty. We have good laughs here, isn’t that right?" "That’s a fact," says Kitty.

Lil describes Kitty as an "outstanding cook". "Up to lately she was at the cooking, baking bread and making fruitcakes, and inviting guests in for dinner." Kitty has lots of friends and received "mountains of cards" when she had Covid before Christmas. An avid Arsenal supporter, Kitty enjoys watching football matches with her brother-in-law Noel and follows the Premier League.

"Oh, I know what’s going on every week, because I’m there, on the laptop, on the Guardian newspaper, there’s a sports section, and it does golf and everything like that, but I do follow the football on it… when I was in England, I went to see Arsenal very often when they were playing at home."

Kitty wouldn’t be without the laptop she learned to use at the age of 83, while studying for a degree in Community and Family Studies with NUI Galway. "I couldn’t be sending in written notes. So, I learned how to use the computer then… I was in an organisation in Kilbeggan, we were kind of linked with similar organisations in other villages and towns. And we were all trying to get in touch with the county council ourselves and we decided we would be better off going collectively to them… And one of the people on the council asked us if any of us were interested in doing a diploma course… and we started the diploma course with NUI Galway.

"And when it was over, we were went down to Galway to get our certificates and then they asked us if we’d be interested in continuing further with a degree… I thought it was an opportunity to get a university education. So that was what happened."

Kitty only had to go to Galway occasionally as the degree was distance learning and most of the lectures were delivered in Mullingar Park Hotel. At her graduation ceremony in 2014, she received a standing ovation.

Kitty has always "read an awful lot" but "stopped reading books altogether" when the pandemic started. "And instead of that, I started to read poetry… I just found poetry so refreshing and no matter how often you would read or recite the same line or the same verse, it would emerge from you and feel different all the time; it would still feel so fresh." Her favourite Irish poet is Padraic Colum. "‘Oh, to have a little house. To own the hearth and stool and all. To heap the sods upon the fire. The pile of turf against the wall,’ all that kind of thing, you know. ‘A clock with winding chain and pendulum swinging up and down. A dresser filled with shining delph, speckled with white and blue and brown.’ Oh yes, I love Padraic Colum."

"Something I miss now is bird watching… when you’d go out for a walk looking at the hedges and so on… I remember going out on my bicycle out near, in the Rahugh direction from Kilbeggan. And I went up to this farmhouse… and it was in the autumn and there was a lot of activity going on. But I always remember this: they had an avenue up to the house and the hedges were full of yellow hammers. It was the loveliest memory I have of birds. Of course, if I went to the same place now today, I wouldn’t see a sight like that… it was about 1993, I think… I’m very interested in the birds. What’s happening to them, you know, the environment."

Of climate change, Kitty says, "I’m a bit iffy about that, now, what’s going to happen, I think everyone is the same… it’s very hard to be optimistic about climate change when you see what’s happening to wildlife and all that kind of thing."

Yet Kitty feels Ireland is in good shape. "I don’t think there’s anything terrible going on really… well, the worst thing that’s going on I think, in this country, is the anti-migrant demonstrations… I think that’s a terrible thing to happen here… It’s a terrible reflection on the country."

Despite that, she doesn’t think the Irish have changed much. "I wouldn’t say people have changed, really. Their innermost feelings are still the same as they always were."

In her almost 97 years, there isn’t any period that Kitty considers superior to another.

"They’re all more or less the same… Every year seems to go by like the blink of an eye, you know, there wasn’t any period that I felt, ‘Oh, this is dragging on too long.’."

Asked if there are any words of wisdom she’d like to pass on, Kitty’s response is, "Well, no there isn’t. You just do the best you can, that’s all."

And as to whether she has any secret to living such a long life, Kitty says, "None whatever. I’m still alive; I don’t know why!" Perhaps it has something to do with her disposition. "I have a very positive outlook. I always say to Lil, ‘All’s for the best, the best of all possible worlds.’ And there’s another one, ‘God’s in his heaven; all’s right with the world.’."