THE WOMAN BELIEVED to be Ireland’s oldest person has died just a few months after celebrating her 109th birthday.

Phyllis Furness passed away in Galway yesterday evening. 

Her granddaughter Jackie Ord travelled from Melbourne in Australia to join other well-wishers as Mrs Furness celebrated her 109th birthday on 23 May this year at Moycullen Nursing Home.

She expressed a wish at the time to reach her 110th birthday next May and become a supercentenarian.

Born Phyllis Olwyn Ryder in Nottinghamshire in England, she moved with her husband John to the Glann Road outside Oughterard in 1981 as a retirement project. Her husband was keen on angling and wanted to be near Lough Corrib.

After he died in 1984, Phyllis Furness moved to a house closer to Oughterard village and continued to live there until last year, when she moved to Moycullen Nursing Home in Galway.

She became an active member in the local community, particularly in Kilcummin Church, when she arrived in Galway over 40 years ago.

The couple, who had married in 1940, had one son, Michael, who was born in 1942. Michael died in 2012.

Framed greeting cards from the late Queen Elizabeth and the UK’s current king and queen Charles and Camilla were on display in her room in Moycullen, while she also received commemorative coins from President Michael D Higgins every year since she turned 100.