LIFE FEATURES:A new generation of people are redefining what it means to be older in Ireland, and playing a more active and vibrant role in their communities, writes BRIAN O'CONNELL
EIGHTY-NINE-year-old Joe Daly has been working in his bicycle shop in Dundrum, Co Dublin for the past 58 years. Every day he cycles the five kilometres to and from work, as well as making it home and back for lunch. His working day is nine to six, Monday to Saturday, and he takes his holidays in the Isle of Man for the annual TT motorcycle road race. Sometimes, he brings the bike along and goes for extended cycles on the racetrack.
Daly is part of an increasing population of active older people in Ireland, who are proving that old age and inactivity are not exclusively mutual. By virtue of their increased mobility and longevity, many older Irish are now challenging the rest of society to redefine our somewhat dated views of the ageing process and its implications. Older people, in other words, are doing it for themselves, for longer.
“You do slow down when you get older, but you have to keep going,” says Daly. His business has also been at the mercy of modernity, as the centre of Dundrum has undergone several facelifts over the past half-century. “My shop Joe Daly Cycles opened in 1951, and about 18 years ago they put a road through it and moved me further down the road,” he says. “Then many years later when they were building the Luas, they put another road through me. I had a legal battle with the county council, and they had to accommodate me, so I’m still where I was many years ago, right beside the new Luas Bridge.” The key to Daly’s active survival, he says, is keeping busy and not allowing inactivity take hold. “I get up at 7.15am every day. I could easily sit there and look at television and not do anything but it’s important to keep the brain active. Cycling keeps me fit. I’m in reasonably good health, but like everybody else I have a few aches and pains. This shop is almost like a museum now, there are very few of us left in Dundrum. Please God, I’ll be here for another few years yet.”
Over in Headford, Co Galway, ninety-year-old Mary Forde has just finished a computer class for the day, having bought herself a laptop recently. “I’m getting to grips with the internet. It’s a powerful device,” she says, “and of course I love playing the games.” When Forde’s husband died 24 years ago, she was determined to keep as active as possible and not allow herself to become isolated. “I was born on a farm and worked in the country until I was in my mid-30s. Then I married my husband and moved to Headford, where we ran a bar. I pulled pints for over 30 years. When my husband died, I decided to close the pub and take life easy. I used to play bingo but the bus has stopped so I don’t play that any more. I play the accordion, and every Sunday I listen to music at home for hours.”
Four elderly citizens started the computer class with Forde. She’s the only one who lasted the distance. “The internet and the e-mail I found hard but I have it mastered now,” she says. “For other older people I see no reason why they shouldn’t pick it up. It’s a wonderful tool. I think older people are far more active nowadays than they were when I was younger. Back then, once the women reached 70 years of age, they sat in the corner and didn’t move. Life was over for them effectively. I don’t feel old, to be honest. I feel the same as I did when I was 60. I keep fit and very active, which is important. The secret to it I think is not to have any worries. I decided a few years ago not to worry about anything and to pass everything off and it has worked.”
Advances in healthcare in the past decades have meant that life and mobility don’t end at 65. The very public show of strength from older Irish people in recent months, in response to Government plans to limit medical-card eligibility, demonstrated that a new generation of vocal and active older people are emerging. Yet they still live, for the most part, in an ageist society. One man I spoke to, who is in his 90s and still working, didn’t want to be named, as he does some work for a government department, and he fears it will be stopped if he were too public about it. “In the current economic climate, people don’t want to hear about an old bastard like me still working with so many young people out of work,” he says by way of explanation.
Gerard Scully, a spokesperson for Age Action Ireland, says that older people have always felt discriminated against, despite their best efforts. “This hasn’t suddenly become an issue in the past year. We have a tradition in employment of people retiring between 60 and 66 years of age and thereby freeing up the job for younger people. There’s a feeling that once a person reaches the age of 66, the job should be given to someone starting out. During the Celtic Tiger years, when the number of jobs was more than people, society was starting to come around to the idea that older people could continue to make an economic contribution to society. I think that has gone by the wayside now, and older people are more reluctant to look for or be given work.”
Eilis Murray, a coordinator with Friends of the Elderly, is inclined to agree, and says that agencies working with older people have also had to change their outlook to reflect a more active older population. “We notice that on our day trip and events, elderly are looking for more active pursuits, such as an afternoon’s shopping or a walk around tourist sites and so on. Due to advances in healthcare, older people are living longer and are more active. There are still huge challenges around the point in life when independence is threatened though. Yet, what we’re seeing is the demand from older people for activities is increasing and older people are starting to assert themselves as vibrant and contributory members of their communities, especially in cities.”
One of those vibrant city older people is Mary McNicholas, who lives in Dublin and last March became Ireland’s oldest tandem parachute jumper at the age of 77. A retired primary school teacher, since finishing her career she has spent five years living in Manhattan and accompanied her grand-daughter on high-thrill rides to Disneyland and other entertainment resorts. She says there was a noticeably different attitude to ageing in America, and she has adopted many of her positive lifestyle practices from there.
“When I lived in America, I joined a gym and I was one of the youngest there,” she says, “Every morning I attended there would be a queue of people outside waiting for it to open at 5.30am. Many of them would be complaining that it didn’t open at 5.15am. I can’t imagine that happening in Ireland. I got into that active habit and carried it on when I came home.”
Approaching her 50th wedding anniversary, McNicholas wanted to do something special to mark the occasion and surprise her husband, Walter. “I went on a huge slide in Tenerife with a 90-degree drop called the Kamikaze. After that, I started thinking about doing a parachute jump. My son contacted the Irish Parachute Club in Edenderry, and last March I did the jump from an altitude of 13,000 feet. The next oldest person to do it before me was 71 years old. I was scared going up, but all I had to do was overcome the fear and hop out of the plane.”
Later, McNicholas presented her family, the majority of whom had no knowledge of her jump, with a video of her exploits. “My husband knew I was daft but I don’t think he could quite believe it,” she says. With plans currently in place for another similar feat, McNicholas says maintaining an active and youthful outlook is the key to cheating old age.
“You have to get up early in the morning and grab the day. I was up at half five this morning when I went for a walk. There’s no point sitting around waiting for things to happen.”
