Ruby Druce, recognized as Ireland’s oldest person, has passed away peacefully at the age of 109 at her niece’s home in Castlefinn, Co Donegal. Ms. Druce, who died on Thursday, had celebrated her 109th birthday on New Year’s Eve last year.
Born Ruby Crawford in 1915 to parents Elizabeth and George, she became Ireland’s oldest living resident in August following the death of Galway woman Phyllis Furness, who was also 109. Despite this distinction, Ms. Druce was known to dismiss mentions of her age, preferring not to dwell on her remarkable longevity.
According to The Irish Examiner, her life spanned through extraordinary historical periods, including two world wars and two global pandemics – the Spanish flu and COVID-19, which she contracted in 2023. As the eldest of five children, she began working at Porter’s Shirt Factory at age 14, where she remained for 48 years.
Ms. Druce, a non-smoker and teetotaller, reportedly only ever had a single sip of poitín, taken solely for medicinal purposes during a severe cold. She married Jim Druce in 1956, though he passed away 14 years later.
Beyond her family, Ms. Druce had a special fondness for singer Daniel O’Donnell, who along with his wife Majella paid her a surprise visit in May last year. She proudly displayed nine presidential medals, which she enjoyed showing to visitors, and her home would regularly fill with birthday cards and well-wishers.
In 2019, at the age of 103, Ms. Druce decided to visit the cinema to see “Downton Abbey” – her first cinema experience in nearly 80 years, having last cycled to a movie in 1944.
Last year, she experienced the loss of her beloved niece, Margo Butler, who had cared for her in Letterkenny for a decade. Following this, Ruby relocated to Castlefinn to live with another niece, Carmel Martin.
She is survived by numerous nieces, one nephew, grandnieces, grandnephews, and great-grandnieces and nephews.