Kilcar remembers ‘notable woman’ Nora Shovlin (106)
Nora Shovlin’s Funeral took place at St Cartha’s Church after peacefully passing at the age of 106
Fr Williams Peoples of St Cartha’s Church in Kilcar, praised the contribution of the 106-year-old Nora Shovlin to the local community and parish at her Funeral Mass on Friday, August 7.
Nora Shovlin peacefully passed on August 4, at her home in Bavin, Kilcar, surrounded by her loving family. Born on April 9, 1920, and living until she was 106-years-old, she was one of Ireland’s and Donegal’s oldest residents, and was described as a “notable woman” by Fr Peoples.
She spent her entire life in the same house in Bavin, where her parents, Bridget and John, ran a shop.
Fr Peoples said: “The decision was made, a good one, that they would start a shop. A shop, I believe, that kept on going up until the year 2000.
I am sure that every customer was greeted kindly when it came to Nora Shovlin. I am sure everything was done properly.”
Nora was married to Peter Shovlin from Crowkeeragh, Kilcar, on October 23, 1945, and she continued to work along with her mother in the country shop, which she maintained until her later years.
Fr Peoples commented: “I am sure that she played a good part in the rearing of her two children, and eventually, as the family expanded, to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. That was all important to her.
“She would have been a no-nonsense person because she treated people with the dignity that she expected to have returned to her. A good living person.”
He continued: “She also had her own little car, and she had a motorbike as well. I can picture her on the motorbike with a helmet on. That would be a sight to behold. She seems to have been a lady who tried everything.”
Nora Shovlin was predeceased by her husband Peter, her parents John and Bridget McBrearty, her brothers John Joe and Jim and her grandson Declan.
She is sadly missed by her daughter, Geraldine (Paddy) and her son, Hugh (Elizabeth). Missed dearly by her grandchildren, Laura, Stephen, Barry, Tracy, Pauric, Mark, Marie and her 12 great grandchildren.