Creeslough woman Sarah Ann Boyle is a picture of health in her 100th year

It was getting dark as the train which departed Creeslough earlier that day reached Dublin, carrying her case Sarah Ann Boyle dismounted her eyes searching through throngs of people for her sister Mary who had promised she would be there to greet her. 

Walking along the platform, Sarah Ann was struck at the number of people who weaved busily past her without a second glance. A short distance away, Mary waved to Sarah Ann and she quickened her step in her direction. The sisters hugged and Sarah Ann stood back and said: “Tell me Mary, is it a fair day?”

Mary laughed heartily and placed her arm in Sarah Ann’s and directed them out of the bustling station. The year was 1940 and the second World War was underway in England. The girls made their way to Cabra where Mary was working as a cook for the Flynn family. It had been arranged that Sarah Ann would join her and mind the children and the house. Up until then the biggest place Sarah Ann had visited had been Letterkenny. 

Sarah Ann who recently celebrated her 100th birthday remembers that the Flynn family were exceptionally kind to the sisters: “They were very good, very kind to us, we were very lucky - we had great employers,” she recalls sitting in her cosy Creeslough kitchen. 

Sarah Ann came from a family of eight, Paddy, Mary, Neil, Willee, Danny, John and Frances. Her father Willie Kelly spent his life at sea and her mother Sarah née Toye, Kelly, spent her life raising her family.

Sarah Ann who was born on January 14, 1923, has fond memories of growing up. She recalls wonderful teachers and the older girls swinging her around in the playground when she started school. Like many at that time, she left school at 15 and looked after a local house and was delighted to get the opportunity to move to Dublin when she was seventeen years of age.   

“It was another world. We were very happy. We cycled all around Dublin. We went everywhere on bicycles,” she said. 

A picture depicts Sarah Ann and her sister Mary smiling over an old pedal bike.

“I loved Dublin. Mrs Flynn taught me to bake fruit cakes and other things in an electric oven. I remember sitting at the range, being nice and warm, with a book, always with a book in my hand. I asked Mrs Flynn if I could read them and she said I could,” she explained. 

She recalls enjoying the book ‘Gone with the Wind’ as she sat in her Cabra residence. 

“Cabra was different then it was a new town,” she said.

A huge follower of fashion, Sarah Ann remembers going to Clery’s shop in Dublin where for 6 pence you could have the ladder in your stockings fixed. She also recalls paying for an item and having her payment sent away in a tube through the shop and to return with her change in it. 

“The money went upstairs in a tube through a pipe and your change returned in the tube,” she said. 

The girls enjoyed when Donegal made it to Croke Park and they would wait in anticipation for friends from home to arrive in the capital where they would all meet and enjoy the day. 

Sarah Ann met her husband, Charlie, who was a neighbour of her family in Creeslough, in England. A picture shows a handsome couple and Sarah Ann recalls buying her wedding clothes in a Dublin shop. 

“It was pale blue and the hat had pale blue in it as well. The shop I bought it in is not there anymore,” she said. 

Sarah Ann married Charlie in 1950. The couple had seven children, Edmund, Billy, Charles, Danny, Tony (RIP), Mary and Ann.

Sarah Ann was in Bournemouth, England during the second World War. Again, she feels blessed, being employed by a wonderful family who were very kind to her. 

“They were very good to me as well. I was very lucky,” she said. 

During the war Sarah Ann who loves fashion found the price of clothes increased exponentially. 

“You couldn’t buy a skirt at that time because they were too dear. We had very little but what we had was good but after the war things were different. Things changed for the better after the war, you could afford to buy clothes then,” she said. 

Sarah Ann has many fond memories of England. When she married Charlie she settled in Creeslough. 

In recent weeks, she marked her 100th birthday much to the joy of her family and friends. Sarah Ann has enjoyed magnificent health during her life being very rarely in hospital. 

Her advice to the youth of today is to always be kind and mindful of one another.