22 July 1998

On her 100th birthday recently, the notes still poured as sweetly as ever from Nora Rooney's accordion.

At the celebration party in Castlemacgarrett Nursing Home, Claremorris, the sprightly centenarian didn't wait to finish her desert- so anxious was she to join the 14 other musicians who had come to honour her.

Nora, formerly Nora Tolan from Kilcun, Knock, spent nearly fifty years in the United States. She married Barney Rooney, a native of County Down, and in retirement the couple came back to settle at Ballyfarna, near Claremorris.

When Barney died in 1973, Nora kept going with spirit and good humour. In 1989, at the age of 91, she entered Castlemacgarret where she regularly entertains with her beloved accordion.

A talented musician, Nora, according to her many friends, still plays the accordion as good as she did twenty years ago.

MUSICIANS

She has performed on TV and while in the States performed with such accomplished musicians as the great Paddy O'Brien from Nenagh.

In Joe Byrne's book about accordion players there is a sparkling quotation from Nora about what life in exile meant to her and the importance of Irish traditional music in her life.

"It was absolutely wonderful on a Sunday afternoon especially to leave all the noise and traffic and high buildings behind you and open the door on 22nd Street to hear all the lovely music and you far from home. It would really take your breath away.

"The friendship was wonderful. Somebody would always call you over and say: Here is a chair for you, Nora. Sit down and start playing".

Nora played a great deal of music on radio in New York and travelled with the New York Ceili Band to the All-Ireland Fleadh in Boyle in 1960.

This vivacious woman's recipe for a long life is perhaps predictable: "Play music, Irish traditional music preferably, lots of it.

Connaught Telegraph - News & Sport - July 1998