The woman believed to be the oldest person in Ireland has died just a few months after celebrating her 109th birthday.
Phyllis Furness died in Galway yesterday evening, after celebrating her 109th birthday on 23 May at Moycullen Nursing Home with her granddaughter Jackie Ord, who had travelled from Melbourne in Australia.
Ms Furness had expressed a wish at the time to reach her 110th birthday 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, Ms Furness moved to a house closer to Oughterard village and continued to live there until last year when she moved to Moycullen Nursing Home.
She became an active member in the local community, particularly in Kilcummin Church, when she arrived in Galway more than 40 years ago.
The couple, who had married in 1940, had one son, Michael, who was born in 1942 and died in 2012.
Framed greeting cards from the late Queen Elizabeth and current king and queen Charles and Camilla were on display in her room in the nursing home while she also received commemorative coins from President Michael D Higgins every year since she turned 100.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms Ord said her grandmother loved wearing big hats and said people are being asked to wear them to the funeral.
"She had a a great love of hats. She would always come to church with a different hat. And, people admired her for that. You know that it was probably a tradition that doesn't happen so much these days".
Ms Ord said that if people wear hats to the funeral it "would be a lovely tribute for everybody to find a hat and come along and celebrate."
