Stackallen centenarian reveals secret to long life on 100th birthday

An inspirational woman from Stackallen has revealed the secret to her long life, while celebrating her 100th birthday. Kathleen Price has lived through world wars, Ireland in its early days as a Republic, the invention of television and the rise of the digital age.

Incredibly, the centenarian who was born in 1925 continues to live an independent life and still drives. As she marked another milestone birthday last month in the Conyngham Arms Hotel in Slane she was surrounded by several generations of her family all gathering to celebrate her extraordinary life.

As people strive to find ways to improve quality of life and remain healthy in their older years with lotions and potions expensive treatments and well being gurus, Kathleen who is originally from Kells explains that for her it is really quite simple: "Healthy food will look after you, it will prolong your life," said Kathleen.

"I always ate healthily, plenty of vegetables, plenty of fruit and I eat meat and fish," she added.

"Another thing is if I had a disagreement with anyone, instantly it was forgotten. I never, never held anything against anyone because you are only going to do more harm to yourself than the other person. It will only fester, it is not worth worrying about."

Kathleen Sheerin married Kevin Price in 1950 in a chapel in College Hill near Slane, with a reception in the Neptune Hotel in Bettystown.

They went on to have three sons, Joseph, Philip and Kevin. Her husband, Kevin passed away in 2008, aged 86.

The centenarian puts the train journey from Wilkinstown to Croke Park in 1949 for the All-Ireland Senior Football Final Meath v Cavan as one of her favourite memories.

"Croke Park was electric that day but it completely different then, it was all concrete steps, there were no seats," she recalls.

"We happened to be up at the very top of the stand and there were glass mineral bottles at that time, no plastic and Kevin accidently tipped one of the bottles that was lying on one of the steps and it kept going down and there was a couple in front. The woman was Cavan and he was Meath and they were arguing about the game and the bottle tipped her and she turned around and said may the lord have mercy on you. And Kevin just said back, may the lord have mercy on Cavan!

"I had what they called a ‘New Look’ coat and there were 12 lovely buttons and a full wide skirt and one end of my coat got caught in the crowd and the other end got caught in the crowd opposite, buttons were opening all day but I didn't mind, Meath won and we were happy!"

The New Look style mentioned by Kathleen was created by French designer Christian Dior and was a dramatic change from wartime austerity styles. After the rationing of fabric during the Second World War, Dior’s lavish use of material was a bold and shocking stroke. And the Stackallen woman has her late husband Kevin's eye for style to thank for her fashion moment in Croke Park.

"Kevin saw the coat in the window in Lilly Coogan's Boutique on Kennedy Road and it was coming up to Christmas and he went in and asked Lilly if she'd hold on to the coat," explains Kathleen.

"He came home and said go into Lilly Coogan she wants to see you. Lilly had worked in Wilkinstown before that. I said what does she want to see me for, he said I don't know you better go in. So I went in and she produced the coat and it fitted perfectly and that was my Christmas box!"

Life in the 1950s was a world away from what we know now and Kathleen fondly remembers a simpler time.

"We bought the house here from old Lord Mountcharles," she said. "The electricity didn't come until 1961," she added.

"We got a Paraffin oil stove and an oven would sit at the top with two rings. I don't remember anyone else around the area having one of those, it was an advantage but We had to go to the well down the field to carry buckets of water up to do the washing on the wash board.

"We also had an iron that you'd light with methylated spirits and there was a little piece at the back you'd fill that with Paraffin oil and it was a marvelous iron. We never thought anything of doing these things. Young people now don't know what work is, a press of the button and the washing is done!"

Commodities were still scarce after Kathleen got married as a result of World War II as she explains: "Everything was rationed when we got married, tea, butter, flour. We were very lucky, Kevin's mother had cows and a churn and they had plenty of butter and she'd buy for all her ration books and give it to us."

The 100 year-old who worked as a cook in Tankardstown House when the Townsend family was in residence there recalls that cars were "few and far between" when she was young.

"There was farmer that lived up the road from us and he had a Ford car which we were amazed at and the doctor I remember had a bicycle first and then he got a car.

"There was an old bachelor who lived nearby and he'd go into the town to have a few bottles of stout but he'd bring back an enormous big bag of sweets for us and my mother would put on the rashers, eggs and sausages for him and he'd park his Penny Farthing bicycle outside and my brother and I used to go out and we'd have great fun riding the bike up and down, but we wouldn't tell him!"

Incredibly, Kathleen was born just a few years after the establishment of the Irish Free State and remembers the 1933 elections.

"It was a lovely evening and my father walked to the town to cast his vote and he came back and my mother and I were standing at the gate and he took off his hat and blessed himself and said please God, De Valera will be in again!"

The Fianna Fáil tradition was continued when Minister Thomas Byrne and Cllr Wayne Harding called on Kathleen to mark her historic day.