Mary McAuliffe celebrates her 102nd birthday in style

Mary McAuliffe, a lady who changed the lives of those close to her and influenced the communities in which she lived, celebrated her 102nd birthday, last weekend.
Mrs McAuliffe (née Sweeney) was born on January 31, 1921, the eve of St Brigid’s day.
She is the daughter of the late Michael Sweeney, Clonbara, Falcarragh and Cassie Mc Fadden Dore, Gaoth Dobhair.
Mary was sent to Gaoth Dobhair to her grandmother’s house to spend her final two years of primary school education in Scoil Chnoc a’ Stolaire. The decision was made to help improve her Irish so she could enter the scholarship exam to Loreto Convent, Letterkenny.
Mary cycled from her home in Falcarragh to Gaoth Dobhair on a Sunday evening - a distance of thirteen miles. Her mother would cycle half way with her: “She would say to me ‘it’s all down hill from here Mary’ and I would cycle down by Dunlewey and into Dore,” she recalled.
Mary would return home to Falcarragh on Friday evening after school. She recalls it was in Gaoth Dobhair she learnt sean nós - a love that has been nurtured over the years: “Francie Mooney was at school with me. Joe Gallagher was the principal and he was very good to us,” she said.
She laughs as she recalls nights of raking (oícheanta airneáil) by the fireside when people would gather to tell ghost and fairy stories. She also recalls being sent to watch cows, buachailleacht bó, as it was known locally.
She and her friends would meet in the evening as they carried out their duty of watching the cows. They would go to the stream and discuss the lessons of the day. Mary said that she recalls a land without fences without walls where neighbours knew where their land was.
Pointing out of her Dunfanaghy window where fields of velvet green merge with the jagged rocks of the wild Atlantic ocean, she inclines her head and says: “It was like that - there were no walls between their properties. We went over the river and did our sums. It was a very simple and interesting life. I never heard of sickness and there were no cars back then, no buses, no flights.
“We had no televisions or phones but they all had melodeons and fiddles and there was storytelling forever more. People were good to eachother back then. It was a fantastic time.”
Mary later attended Loreto Convent in Letterkenny where she boarded. It was there she was introduced to drama and choir and enjoyed it immensely. Mary won a scholarship to the Munster Institute in Cork where she studied domestic science. Unfortunately, while she was there her mother passed away.
Mary had to return home to Donegal and take over the running of the family business, Sweeney’s Drapers, in 1939. She also had to rear a young family - the youngest of the family being five years of age at the time. Mary worked hard both at home and at the shop. She turned the general drapery shop into a fashion house.
Her sister Gretta was a well-known fashion designer. She had her own label called Glenveagh and she worked in Dublin.
Mary met her husband, Jack McAuliffe, in Dunfanaghy in August, 1952. They married a year later. He was a pharmacist and his business was located on the main street - where the family business now stands. In 1969, when Mary’s father passed away she moved to Dunfanaghy.
“I just packed all my shop into a lorry and moved it upstairs - it was as simple as that,” she said.
She and her fashion designer sister Greta held fashion shows in Dunfanaghy, Cresslough, Falcarragh, Letterkenny and Gaoth Dobhair.
Mary harbours a great love of tradition and was very focused on the community and improving the community. She got involved in community on a larger scale after moving to Dunfanaghy and was one of the directors of The Workhouse Dunfanaghy which later became a Famine Heritage Centre.
She has always been to the fore in promoting Irish culture in the locality.
“Gortahork was famous for Irish students and McFadden’s Hotel was a big place for Irish students,” Mary said.
The 102-year-old says she feels life is moving very fast for the current generation. She says the old pace of life was slower despite the fact that people worked exceptionally hard: “It was just so simple but people helped eachother out and it was a pleasant time of life.”
Mary is interested in genealogy and with a sharp and active mind she can span back generations: “I am looking across so many generations now.”
She says the secret to a long life is hard work and being dedicated to family.