Mayo woman and child celebrate birthdays together ... 99 years apart!

It was just another Sunday morning in her beloved Mayo Abbey as Katty Delaney turned 103 last week. But as the day progressed, a constant stream of callers and messages of goodwill made it another special day in the life of the lady who holds the title of Ireland’s longest serving sacristan.

In 2020, she called it a day after almost 80 years as sacristan in Mayo Abbey, an extraordinary devotion to duty that is unlikely to be surpassed anytime.

She was born in Portagh, about a mile from Mayo Abbey village. Katty’s parents were Jim Delaney and Lizzie Hughes and she was baptised in September 1921. Fr Michael Murphy was the parish priest at the time. The Delaney family came to Portagh from Island near Ballyhaunis in 1848.

During lockdown in 2020, she dictated material for two small booklets that were published some months later. The first one contained a series of reflections in a sixteen page booklet entitled ‘Priests in Mayo Abbey in My Time’ while the second one, ‘My Century in Mayo Abbey’, runs to 20 pages.

Among the messages received for her birthday was one from President Michael D Higgins, the fourth one that has come her way from Aras an Uachtaráin.

Among her special visitors on her birthday was four year old Siofra Glynn from Portagh who shared her birthday with Katty. Her parents, Jennifer (nee Conboy from Claremorris) and James, gave Siofra a little stone from the old homestead of the Delaney family in Purtagh to give to Katty on her big day.

Katty rounded off the night listening to my Late Show on Midwest Radio as she has done so faithfully over the last 35 years. Keep the flag flying, Katty!