Tag Archives: Syracuse

FEAKLE native, Kathleen Hayes Rollins Snavely, Ireland’s longest-lived person, passed away yesterday (Monday) morning in Geddes, Syracuse, New York State. Born Kathleen Hayes, one of five children of Patrick and Eileen Hayes in Feakle, on February 16, 1902, she travelled from Cobh on the Sythia as a 19 year-old in 1921 to Syracuse, was married and widowed twice, helped to build successful dairy and lumber businesses and had been living in the Centers at St. Camillus, a retirement home in Geddes, Syracuse since suffering a fall when she was 102 years old. Kathleen lived for 113 years and 140 days and on March 26 this year, moved past Annie Scott – who’d died in 1996, at the age of 113 and 37 days – to become the longest-lived person, ever, from Ireland. Former Feakle National School principal Ted Harrington received the news from Kathleen’s nephew Gerry Hayes last night, “Kathleen had been ill for the past three weeks with a …

FEAKLE woman and Ireland’s oldest person in history, Kathleen Snavely celebrated her 113th birthday in Syracuse, New York State, on Monday but earlier this year she took time out to correspond with pupils at Feakle National School. Mrs Snavely was chosen by Róisín Quilligan and Siobhán Tuohy as part of their Flat Stanley project in school. This project is based on the Flat Stanley books, written by Jeff Brown Stanley, which sees the Flat Stanley character travel the world in envelopes. It began in 1994 in Ontario, Canada, when Dale Hubert had the idea of having children create their own Flat Stanley paper cut-outs and mailing them to friends and family around the globe, in order to foster authentic literacy activities for kids and get them excited to write about Stanley’s adventures. In Feakle, pupils have written to and received responses from a number of famous people, including President Michael D Higgins, Channing Tatum, Ryan Tubridy, Henry Shefflin, Brian Gavin, …

FEAKLE native, Kathleen Snavely, who is Ireland’s oldest ever woman, celebrated her 112th birthday on Sunday last. Mrs Snavely, nee Hayes, is originally from Garraun Feakle, made the record books in January as the Republic’s oldest living person, surpassing a record held by Katherine Plunkett of County Louth, who was born in 1820 and lived to 111 and 327 days. Now a resident of Syracuse, New York, Mrs Snavely celebrated her birthday at St Camillus retirement centre. She is in good health. She was born on February 16, 1902 to parents, Patrick and Ellen Hayes (nee Moroney). Her closest relatives live in Ireland, and Kathleen’s nearest relative  is nephew, Gerard Hayes, who lives in Limerick. She has a number of other relatives in Meath, Dublin, Louth and Leitrim. There are also bonds in Feakle. Former Mayor of Clare Councillor Pat Hayes; renowned fiddle player Martin Hayes and their sister, Helen Hayes are also related to Mrs Snavely, as their father …