Mary Jennings was born in Tramore, County Waterford, the third daughter of Daniel Corley Jennings of Newry, County Down and Johanna Bray of Thurles, County Tipperary.
Baptised Tramore 25th August 1858. Mary, Daniel Jennings and Johanna Bray.[1]
In the 1901 Census she is recorded as aged 34, but she was actually 43. In 1901 her sister Kate’s age is recorded as 35, surely she should be 44? Like Kate, Mary’s income is given as ‘dividends’.
Jennings Mary 34 Female Daughter Roman Catholic Co Waterford Dividends Read and write English Not Married.[2]
On September 7th 1908 her sister in law Henrietta E. Jennings wrote Mary Jennings came on a visit.[3] This was to the Jennings home in Lady Lane, Waterford City, where Mary’s brother Ignatius Ronayne Bray Jennings was County Inspector of the R.I.C. Mary’s mother Johanna, widow of Daniel Corley Jennings, had died in Dublin the previous March.
In the 1911 Census she is again recorded as aged 45 when she should have been 53. Her sister Kate’s age is recorded as 48, having aged thirteen years instead of ten since the 1901 Census, but shouldn’t she be 54? Neither sister was admitting to her true age! They were living then at 23 Waterloo Place, Pembroke West, Dublin.
Their niece Joan Jennings stayed with them when she was recovering from typhoid and brain fever, and apparently had no hair. She was aged 30 and unmarried. It’s not clear whether this was in the house in Morehampton Road, no longer occupied by Daniel or Johanna, both being deceased, or at 23 Waterloo Place, but it seems that some of those involved in 1916 were welcome to whichever house it was – referred to as the 1916 crowd – and she had a great time![4]
Kate died in the Hospice at Harold’s Cross in 1942. Mary subsequently moved to a nursing home in Chapelizod. Prior to this she and Kate had both lived in Buswell’s Hotel, 25 Molesworth Street, Dublin, where they were well known, Mary Jennings was very small, her grandniece Deirdre Tobin would say later. Young men would give their seats to her.[5]
Mary died on the 31st of July 1958. She was almost 100 years old. Like her sister Kate she died in the Hospice for the Dying in Harold’s Cross, Dublin, though her place of residence on her death certificate was noted as Buswell’s Hotel. It was also recorded that she was of independent means. The cause of death was myocardial degeneration and pernicious anaemia.
She is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.[6]
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