Former Irish business woman celebrates her 100th birthday - and her secret to longevity?

MARY CARRI, a well-known former business woman in Clonmel, celebrated her 100th birthday on Friday, June 30, 2023. In fact, having waited so long for the occasion to arrive, Mary justifiably ended up celebrating the big occasion not once but twice. Her first cake was cut among the staff at Melview Nursing Home on the day itself, and then another cake on the following day in the home of her niece Miriam Kiely in Ballinamult, in the company of the extended Carri family, from as far afield as Brisbane, Singapore and London.
Many residents of Clonmel, and out into the hinterlands, especially those of a certain vintage, will remember Mary Carri. Along with her late sister Teresa, they successfully ran the ‘Sarah Boutique’ for almost four decades at 43 O’Connell Street, a premises which is today part of Sean Hackett’s Electrical Store.
The Carri family, as the name might suggest, originated from Italy, specifically Bellagio in the Como area, the same general region from which famous business man Charles Bianconi hailed previously. Centenarian Mary explained that her grandfather, Giovanni, along with two brothers of his had escaped from an Austrian army invasion of northern Italy in the mid 1800s crossing the Alps to reach the safety of Paris before eventually making their way to London. While John (Giovanni) found employment with an uncle in London, his two brothers subsequently emigrated to Argentina.
According to Mary, with her incredible ability of recall, her grandfather John soon met and fell in love with a Tipperary woman in London, a Miss Downey, the couple later marrying in her home village of New Inn. Sadly his wife died a young woman and is buried in the local Lough Kent Cemetery where John would later be interred.

Members of the extended Carri family from as far afield as Brisbane, Singapore and London made it to Clonmel and Ballinamult to celebrate Mary’s 100th birthday on June 30, 2023. Among the gathering were her two nephews and niece from Clonmel - Chas Carri (directly behind Mary), to his left Pat Carri and next to Pat, Miriam (Kiely)

Still a young man after his wife’s passing, John Carri would remarry Bridget Hickey, a native of Clonmel, setting up business in a small house beside her home on the Irishtown side of the Westgate. That business, selling furniture, religious and fancy goods did very well and they soon moved to larger premises in Upper O’Connell Street, the shop that many years later would pass to their grandchildren.
John and Bridget had three children - John P, Charles (Mary’s father) and Angelina. Entrepreneurial by nature, John P set up his own business in a separate premises on the opposite side of O’Connell Street at No. 51, a shop that to this day, over sixty years after his death, carries the family surname (no pun intended) even if the business is long in the hands of the Molloy family.
Mary’s late father Charles operated his own business from No. 43 selling furniture and also providing a picture framing service. He would later develop a funeral undertaking and a coffin making business and one of the duties Mary and Teresa had was actually sewing the pillow cases for the coffins.
“It was funny the way it was then with funerals,” said Mary. “We seemed to get most of the Fine Gael funerals and the Condons got most of the Fianna Fáil ones. But funerals were a lot different back then, there were no hearses or anything like that, it was horse and cart to the cemetery. My mother Sarah had been a nurse and she often helped with laying people out,” explained Mary.

Mary was the middle child in a family of three to Charles and Sarah (nee O’Donnell, Fethard). Mary’s early education was in the Loreto Convent in Clonmel and later boarding for two years in Fermoy. “Now here’s one for the paper,” she quipped, “I am now the oldest surviving Loreto girl in Ireland.”
Mary’s siblings were her older brother Charlie (died 1986) and younger sister Teresa (died 2002). While Mary and Teresa went on to work in the family business before eventually setting up their own boutique, brother Charlie (who married a Clonmel woman, Florence Walsh) opened a pub at the bottom of Dillon Street (Charlie’s) for a brief period before setting up his own secondhand furniture business and auction rooms.
Incidentally, Mary’s mother Sarah came from the O’Donnells in Fethard, one of 16 children. The youngest of that family, Patrick, would go on to become Archbishop of Brisbane in Australia where he was to spend most of his long life devoted to the Catholic Church.

Mary Carri with her framed letter from President Michael D. Higgins

It was no surprise then with such an ingrained family ethic of industriousness that when I put it to Mary as to what exactly was her secret elixir to a long life she replied, simply, “hard work.”
“We always worked very hard, it’s the way it was. We built up a good business, we stocked good labels and we had loyal customers. We would be particularly busy every year with Holy Communion and Confirmation. We would get to London twice a year to keep on top of things. And back then, when most businesses in Clonmel closed on Thursdays, we would often head to Dublin to meet up with wholesalers and re-stock as needed,” added Mary, who operated the business with Teresa from 1954 to 1993.
“It was the high end stuff, Mary, wasn’t it?” jokingly interjected only-niece Miriam, describing the stock they kept at the Sarah Boutique and enjoying the banter with her lively 100-year old aunt.
Mary also pointed out that a cousin of hers in America, Jack O’Donnell, recently celebrated his 100th birthday, while another cousin Vera O’Shea died earlier this year aged 98. Mary’s mother Sarah also lived to be 92, so longevity was definitely in the genes somewhere.

But it wasn’t all work and no play either in life for Mary Carri who has enjoyed her long innings. “I learned to drive early as my father always had cars and we loved to travel everywhere around Ireland. And I drove to Wales too, taking the ferry to Holyhead and going over to see my cousin, Jack Carri. Teresa and I also visited New York and Rome. We would always eat very well and I enjoyed the occasional glass of sherry,” she added.
It is when you get Mary talking about O’Connell Street of old that the sharpness of her reminiscences come into perfect focus. While admitting to being “very disappointed and heartbroken” at the number of unoccupied business premises in that end of Clonmel today, Mary made it feel as if it was only yesterday such was her ability to roll off the names of former business premises on Clonmel’s main thoroughfare.

Mary Carri celebrating her 100th birthday on June 30, 2023 surrounded by staff members at Melview Nursing Home.

And off the top of her head...
“There was Sheedy’s at the Westgate, Stillions, Cliffords/Andy Dillons, us, Hoynes which became Mary Cahill’s (hairdressers), Kate Murray’s, Mrs Hegarty’s, James Kelleher’s pub, Condon’s clothes shop, Jack Richardson’s, Bartlett’s (bicycles), Lonergans, Byrnes’ which Joe Fennessy had, Kavanaghs (builders), Mahers Garage (later O’Sullivan’s garage), Norris’s (pub) before it became Pierse’s (hardware, now Bob Fitzgerald’s), Paddy O’Gorman’s (menswear) at the corner of Bridge Street, the Exhibition House, Oisin Theatre, Walsh’s (pigs’ heads and crubeens), Boyles (sweet shop)... etc.”
In full flow now, there was mention too of Hipps (gents drapers), Dick O’Donnell’s (pub), Sheils (Fishmongers), Tom Cashin’s (drapers), Moroneys, Murphys, Davy Roche’s (fruit & veg), Joe Slattery’s pub and TV shop, Martin Maher’s radio shop and a Miss Flannery who had a teahouse.
Always great company, one could quickly sense in conversation with Mary Carri what a bank of information she is on the social and commercial past of Clonmel over many decades, and how a young student today could benefit from tapping into her depth of wisdom and knowledge. And in that regard it is good to know that Mary, along with 12 other elders from Clonmel, including fellow centenarian Margaret Rossiter, will feature in an upcoming new writing project highlighting the life stories of some of the key older citizens of the town. That book, Elders of Clonmel, is due to be launched as part of the Applefest Festival in September.

After a thoroughly enjoyable chat, Mary was still only winding up with anecdotes. There was the one about the Germans supposedly landing in Powerstown Park and Knocklofty during the War; another about the rationing of food and essential commodities during ‘The Emergency’ and how people coped with having little. And another tale was of her excitement at receiving something as familiar as a banana such was the shortage of imported fruit into Ireland during the War.
Mary Carri moved into Melview Nursing Home only last September from her home on the Cahir Road and is well settled in and very happy in her new abode. It was in Melview that she was presented with her framed letter and cheque from President Michael D Higgins for reaching the magnificent milestone of 100 years. Mary also received another complimentary letter from Tipperary County Council to honour her big day.
Still enjoying great health for her age and largely independent, Mary is immensely proud of her home town and particularly her Carri family and heritage. Friends and neighbours and everyone who know her join in extending belated birthday greetings and blessings for continued good health and happiness for many years to come.