Mary McEvoy, a beloved resident of Peninsula Villages, celebrated her 100th birthday on Thursday, 5th October with her friends and family in the Pozieres House private dining room.
Mary’s life has been an amazing adventure, and we’re honoured to share a bit of her story with you.
Mary was born in County Mayo, on the shores of Loch Corrib, the largest lake in Ireland, on 5th October 1923.
The eldest of seven children, Mary had four brothers and two sisters. They grew up on a mixed farm with cattle, sheep and horses. Mary attended the local primary school, where her mother was the school principal, until she was 12 years old and then went to boarding school in Tuam, County Galway until finishing at 17.
Mary moved to Dublin and commenced her nursing training at St Vincent’s Hospital, completing her training in 1946.
She left Ireland in 1948 and nursed in London until her marriage to husband Bill in 1950. Mary and Bill, who was a doctor, soon travelled to India as they wanted to go somewhere warmer and in 1953, they welcomed their first child there. They returned to London in 1955 and had three more daughters.
They left and sailed to New Zealand for five years before moving to Australia in 1968. They moved to the western suburbs of Sydney, where Bill opened his own radiology practice.
Mary was widowed in 1987 and continued to live in her own home until moving to Peninsula Villages in 2020 at 97 years of age.