Date of Birth: June 1935

Place of Birth: Kilmore Quay, Co. Wexford

Date Interviewed: 10th November 2009

Summary: Mary Power’s father was a council worker and a founder member of the Mayglass Ceili Band. Her mother died aged 35 of a burst appendix. Although she was in hospital there was no one available to operate on her! Mary’s grandparents took care of them. Her father later remarried and had six more children. She talks of her schooldays, going barefoot and having plenty of work to do. After several years working in Tipperary and Dublin Mary returned home to care for her grandmother. She married Tommy when she was 22 and moved into an old thatched farmhouse. It had no running water and electricity was not installed until 1964.