Dungloe woman is looking forward to her 103rd year

Dungloe centenarian Margaret O’Donnell celebrated her 102 birthday last  weekend with family and friends,in Arás Gaoth Dobhair nursing home.
Born in the Upper Diamond in Dungloe to John ‘Showney’ Donnell and Mary O’Donnell (nee Brennan) February 3rd, 1916, Margaret or Maggy as she is affectionately known is still hale and heart and enjoys good health.
“Her hearing or her sight isn’t as good as it used to be but otherwise she is in good health,” her niece-in-law Sheila Friel told the Democrat.
“She is an avid Celtic fan and I was down with her at the party on Saturday when I told her that Celtic were beaten. She immediately asked who beat then and when I told her it was Kilmarnock, she shrugged her head.”
Margaret like so many of her generation from the Rosses and West Donegal emigrated to Scotland as a young girls.
And she worked in Scotland and the North of England for well over 30 years before returning home to look after he mother in the late 1960s.
“Her first job in Scotland was as a priest’s housekeeper in Dundee. She worked in that job for a number of years and in the North of England for a short time before working as Clippy (bus conductress), in Glasgow.”
Margaret also worked for a number of years for Singer Sewing Machine, in their plant - the biggest sewing machine factory in Europe at the time.
Margaret returned to her home place in Dungloe in her early 50s to look after her mother.
For the last year and a half she is a resident of Arás Gaoth Dobhair in Derrybeg.