Ruby Druce, Ireland’s oldest living person has put her longevity down to walking, hard work and cod liver oil as she celebrates her 109th birthday.
From Castlefin in east Donegal, Mrs Druce was born on New Year’s Eve 1915 to George and Elizabeth Crawford. In a century of huge change in Ireland, she lived through the 1916 Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence, the Civil War, two world wars and two pandemics.
Mrs Druce lost a brother and sister to the first pandemic, the Spanish flu and recalls her father giving her poitín when she became sick with the illness. However, a life-long teetotaller, she has put her longevity down to hard work, walking and cod liver oil.
In an interview with East Donegal community newspaper, the Finn Valley Voice, Mrs Druce said she was surprised to have lived so long.
She became Ireland’s oldest person following the death earlier in 2024 of Phyllis Furness from County Galway.
She left school at the age of 14 and worked at Porter’s shirt factory in her native Castlefin for more than 40 years. In 1956, she married her husband, Jim Druce, who was a musician and originally from Scotland. However, he died just 14 years later.
She continued to live on her own until she was 98 when she fell and broke her hip after which she moved in with her niece, Margo Butler.
However, tragedy struck last summer when Ms Butler died after an illness. Since then, Mrs Druce has been living with another niece, Carmel Harran and her husband Martin.
With a life full of memories, she recalls owning a Honda 50 motorcycle on which she used to travel to Bundoran for days out. In recent years, she has travelled much further, even visiting relatives in Toronto, Canada and going on a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
Her niece, Mrs Harran said her aunt was a “very special lady” while Mr Harran told RTE she considered the Spanish flu of 1918 the most significant event for her own family when her six-week-old sister, Mary Elizabeth and her two-year-old brother, James died in the same week.
Mr Harran said: “She vividly remembers James with his blond curly hair and the two coffins in the house. She herself fondly tells the story of how she escaped the Spanish flu by her father giving her a couple of teaspoons of poitín, the only time in her life when she tasted alcohol.”
