100 reasons to celebrate for Betty

Elizabeth ‘Betty’ McNiffe of Ballinamore, recently celebrated her 100th birthday.

Born Elizabeth Kelly on a small farm just outside Ballinamore in 1925, the New Irish Free State was just two years old and Fianna Fáil had not yet been established.

Elizabeth was reared in three different houses, attended five different schools and worked in three different countries by the time she married in 1951. She was taught by the late Susan McGahern in Lisacarn National School and, as their babysitter vividly remembers, future writer John gallivanting around the place.

She attended the newly built Aughawillan National School under Master McTiernan, leaving age 15 years, having studied among other things algebra and a few Shakespearean plays.

There was no second level school in Ballinamore at the time, so she did a Commercial Course in Ms Maureen Gallagher’s ‘private school’. Elizabeth then went to the newly opened Vocational School for another year before working in a nursing home in Lisburn for two years (1943-45)- 10 hours per day, one half day per week, one day off per month.

She still remembers the celebrations in Lisburn on May 8, 1945, the day the war in Europe ended.

In December that year Elizabeth started training to be a nurse in Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. She loved England. Her brother, the recently ordained Fr Micheál Kelly, was working in a Birmingham parish at this time. After training, two of her sisters, Anne and Kathleen, also nurses, began working with her in a nursing home in Birmingham too.

By 1951 Elizabeth and her sister Kathleen returned to work in Castlerea Hospital, part of Noel Browne’s Scheme to eradicate tuberculosis.

Elizabeth married Willie ‘Michael’ McNiffe, from a few miles up the road in 1951 and they came to live in Ballinamore, setting up a small grocery shop. In the early ‘60s they closed the shop and for the rest of his life Willie was a full-time car salesman (1960 to 1972), firstly with Jacksons of Cavan, then Martins of Corlough, and later Smith’s (PMPA) of Cavan, of which he was manager. He then set up his own garage, Ballinamore Motors, in 1971.

The couple had four children- Micheál (Celbridge, Co Kildare), Valerie (Ballymote, Co Sligo), Liam (Kells, Co Meath), and Christopher (Ballinamore).

Sadly, Willie died in 1973, aged 46 years.

Elizabeth lived all her life on Church Street, Ballinamore, the last of her own Kelly family.

Her siblings, with one exception had lengthy lives: Thomas Kelly, Keshcarrigan (99); Seán Kelly, Shercock (79); Anne Kelly, Ballinamore (78); Fr Micheál Kelly (Kilmore Diocese) (88); Breeda Kelly, London (50); Kathleen Smyth, Ballinamore (91); and Mary McHugh, Ballinamore (90).

Elizabeth has very close connections with Cavan.

Her parents, Francis Kelly and Susan Meehan both hailed from Corlough. As a three-year-old she was sent to Bailieborough to live with her uncle Fr Michael Kelly- a Curate there at the time- and his sister, Bess, his housekeeper.

Age eight she was sent to Drung, outside Cootehill, to her Aunt Kate and husband, Mick Conaty, who had no children.

She fondly remembers the “great character” that was her aunt.

Elizabeth nursed in the Old St Felim’s Hospital for a few summers in the early 1970s. Her sister, Anne Kelly was theatre sister in the Surgical Hospital and her brother, Fr Micheál, served in the parishes of Kill, Kildallan, Bailieborough and Castlerahan.

Her brother Seán, a health inspector, lived in Shercock.

Elizabeth’s son, Christopher worked in Ballyconnell’s Boxmore for over 20 years and another son, Liam, was principal of St Patrick’s College, Cavan.

Until a few years ago Elizabeth attended many whist drives within a 20-mile radius of her home.

Her son Christopher lives with, and cares, for her. Her daughter Valerie, a retired nurse, spends a few days each week with her also.

Elizabeth has four children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She enjoys good health, is an avid reader does her crossword each day without fail. She reads the paper without the aid of glasses and is a teetotaller - she and all her siblings were lifelong members of the Pioneers Association.

Her daily diet now includes about a dozen cups of coffee, made on milk each day.

Having been born before the invention of television and now witnessing the advent of artificial intelligence, Elizabeth has seen it all.

She celebrated her 100th birthday on Saturday, January 18, in the Slieve Russell, with Mass, celebrated by her nephew Mons Liam Kelly, Ballyconnell and the Rev Sean Mawn, PP.

She also received a letter from Uachtaráin an hEireann, Michael D. Higgins, with a cheque attached for over €2,500.

The letter congratulated Elizabeth on having lived “through remarkable times in the history of Ireland and the world”.