Woman believed to be Ireland's oldest person dies days before 109th birthday
Easter Rising
and who survived two pandemics has died just days before her 109th birthday.
Sarah Coyle, believed to be Ireland's oldest person, died peacefully at her daughter Marian Galligan's home in Castleknock,
Dublin
, on Monday July 14th, just 10 days before her 109th birthday, her family confirmed.
She was surrounded by her family when she died, her grandson Thomas Galligan said. Just days earlier, she thanked the family for all they had done for her and 'wanted us to know we had her blessing', he said.
Ms Galligan
told The Irish Times earlier this year
her mother, who grew up in Co Wicklow, had memories of significant periods in Irish history, including from the
Civil War
(1922-1923) and even the
War of Independence
(1919-1921).
READ MORE
Those memories, Ms Galligan said, included of the
Black and Tans
, British forces operating in Ireland during the War of Independence who were notorious for their violence.
Ms Coyle remembered one occasion when all the men called James in her home area were rounded up by the Black and Tans in an effort to identify who had shot one of their members. Ms Coyle's father James was among those taken up the mountains but, while his family feared the worst, he returned home uninjured several hours later.
Ms Coyle had nine siblings, some of whom also lived beyond their centenary year. Her sister Lily Kelly, who lives in Solihull in England, turned 103 in April. One of her brothers, Andy Byrne, died shortly before his 101st birthday.
Ms Coyle was born in Knockatomcoyle, a townland in Co Wicklow, before her family moved to Coolkenno, near Tullow. She was working as a housekeeper in Foxrock when she met Tom Coyle from Cavan at a dance.
[
Ireland's oldest woman (108) recalls Black and Tans and attributes long life to 'new nettles' in cabbage
Opens in new window
]
They married and lived in Drumcondra. The couple had four children but two of their daughters died as newborns. Ms Coyle, who lost her eyesight in her early thirties, has five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Her husband worked as a postman until he had a stroke in his late 50s, followed by a brain haemorrhage.
When asked what her mother attributed her longevity to, Marian Galligan said she would gather the first nettles every spring and put them in the cabbage.
'She used to say, 'that will purify your blood'.'
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Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Firehouse Bakery, Delgany, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Firehouse Bakery, Delgany, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Firehouse Bakery, Delgany, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Back in Ireland, when sourdough was still niche, he and a handful of like-minded bakers founded Real Bread Ireland. Today, Real Bread Ireland has more than 150 members – a sign of how much has changed in a decade. Sourdough bread needs only four things – flour, water, salt and wild yeast – plus the time to ferment. Campaigners argue that this is about more than crust: it's about health, class and food justice. They want affordable, additive-free bread for all – not a hipster trophy loaf. But changes are possible. Other countries show it can be done. France's 1993 bread decree insists that baguettes stay additive free and baked on site, and Germany's classic rye breads, such as pumpernickel, still follow traditional methods. 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Photograph: Liam Burke/Press 22 Hugo's in Lahinch draws constant queues for Hugo Galloway's sourdough and laminated pastries. His pastéis de nata are the best I've tasted in the country. In Kilkenny, Nicole Server-Pawlukojc and Bart Pawlukojc run Arán. Their 48–hour sourdough – made with Öland and purple wheat – is shaped, rested in baskets and fired at 260°C. Amie Costello and Conor Higgins keep things creative with the bakers at Elliot's – growing from a single-tray oven in Phibsborough, Dublin 7, to a six-person team on Arran Street East. Their sourdough, baguettes, Basque cheesecake, seasonal buns and croissant tarts sell out quickly. If these bakeries show how sourdough became a national obsession, Graham Herterich reminds us nostalgia still sells. At The Bakery in Rialto, Dublin 8, Herterich is known for blowing up Irish classics – giant Mikados, Bourbon biscuits and Jammie Dodgers – the sweet stuff that takes people straight back to their childhood. Herterich doesn't bother with croissants or Nordic loaves. His shelves are stacked with staples from the Athy bakery he went to in his childhood – brown soda bread, spiced bracks and cream buns. The Mikado biscuit is oversized on purpose, 'so when you hold it, it feels the same as it did when you were a kid', he says. And that's the point. All the sourdough in the world can't outdo the memories baked into sweet things like this. Graham Herterich at The Bakery in Rialto, Dublin 8. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw The Bakery by The Cupcake Bloke, Graham Herterich, in Rialto, Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw For all the cruffins and saffron Danishes, JP McMahon doesn't think the classic Irish bakery is going anywhere – not completely. If anything, he sees it circling back, kept alive by a new generation who never grew up with the real thing but are fascinated by it now. Younger customers and bakers are looking back to the 1950s and '60s for cues: soda bread cream buns, Black Forest gateaux. [ When dinner becomes theatre: 'Guests love it. They sometimes even applaud after the carving' Opens in new window ] He calls it a kind of 'golden age' – not because it was perfect, but because Ireland's bakery history isn't centuries deep. We don't have 300 years of patisserie; we have a few decades of family-run bakeries with modest window displays that were once the height of glamour, and then fell out of fashion. 'People love the idea of sourdough, but they don't want to eat sourdough all the time – so they still go back to brown soda bread,' says McMahon. That past still lives on in Cabra. Yvonne McKinley – helped by her 70-year-old oven – has kept Phoenix Bakery turning out brown bread and apple tarts long after many peers shut their doors. She plans to retire and has a family-adjacent successor lined up: Ross O'Brien, who has spent six years working with her, learning the rhythm no catering college can teach. [ Summer 2025: 100 great restaurants, cafes and places to eat around Ireland Opens in new window ] For all the artisan sourdoughs and €3.95 croissants, there's a question worth asking: how many old-school bakeries are still baking the old way? Some sell out to the trucks delivering frozen goods, the pre-mixes and catering trays, and adding preservatives to their cakes to extend shelf life is now pretty standard. There are no guilds any more, no list on a wall. Cheap industrial bread comes at a price – the costs are hidden in soil, biodiversity and our health. A proper loaf shouldn't be a status symbol. The challenge is baking real bread that everyone can afford. If you want to know who still does it right, look for the locals tapping on the bakery window at seven in the morning. Go to Phoenix Bakery. Say hello to McKinley – and to 70 years of stone, heat, and the kind of bread that never needed an Instagram filter. Pastries and breads worth queueing for Phoenix Bakery Phoenix Bakery, Baggot Road, Dublin 7. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill It's an early start at Yvonne McKinley's Phoenix Bakery, and the locals know exactly how to time things. The first trays that come out of the oven hold the soda bread, then scones, apple tarts, coffee slices and eclairs follow. So get there in the morning and stock up. It's worth having a bit of banter with McKinley when you're in, and find out what's next to land straight out of the 70-year-old stone oven. Every pastry, sponge and tart is mixed and shaped by hand, using traditional methods. There are no frozen shortcuts, or pre-mixed doughs. Just the same recipes that have worked for decades. What to get: Brown soda bread, €3.50; scones, €1.20 each or four for €4; cream slices, eclairs and pastries, €2.80 each or four for €10; Victoria cream sponge, €9. And if you're there early, the apple tart. 16 Baggot Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, D07 XCX5; Una Una in Ranelagh, Dublin 6. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw John Wyer built a big following for his sourdough before teaming up with the Bunsen Burger team to open Una. Head baker Daniel Farrelly runs the ovens, working with organic heritage flours including Mariagertoba wheat from Quartz Mølle in Denmark, farmed regeneratively by Irish grower Fintan Keenan. The sourdough is the backbone: a signature loaf for €6.75, and a sourdough focaccia, fermented for up to 48 hours. The croissants are fermented with wild sourdough yeast and freshly made each day. Expect sweet and savoury pastries, quiche, cinnamon buns, pain au chocolat with extra chocolate, and seasonal specials like Bakewell croissants. What to get: Signature sourdough, €6.75; almond croissant, €5; pain au chocolat, €4.50; and seasonal croissant Bakewell, €5. 116, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, D06 R5P6; Elliot's Conor Higgins and Amie opened Elliot's in Phibsborough in 2022 with one baker. What began as a small bakery with a two single-tray Tom Shandley deck oven has grown into a grand bakehouse in Arran Street East, now running a four-deck, twelve-tray Salva oven with a dedicated pastry room. Their six bakers start at 3am, turning out French-style baguettes, sourdoughs, croissants and morning buns, all with Cloud Picker coffee on the counter. Weekend specials generate a lot of excitement with creative and seasonal pastries. Recent summer treats included an apricot and noyaux brioche bun, a fig leaf, raspberry and coconut croissant tart, and a strawberry elderflower Danish. What to get: Country sourdough loaf, €5.25; weekly croissant special €4.95-€5.95; lemon poppy seed and lemon thyme brioche, €4.75; and Basque cheesecake, €4.95. 43-44 Arran Street East, Dublin 7 and 330 North Circular Road, Phibsborough, Dublin D07 YXY4; Magpie Bakery Magpie keeps its sourdough and pastry prices fair, with no single pastry over €5 – from plain croissants to decadent cruffins filled with raspberry pistachio namelaka or chocolate ganache and salted caramel. All croissant dough ferments over three days, so once they're gone, they're gone. They work with organic Shipton Mill flour, Mad Yolk eggs, dairy from The Village Dairy in Cavan, Dozio cheese in Mayo, Freamh Farm greens, and local fruit growers around Galway. Calendar Coffee is on the brew, and there are always at least four vegan options. Breads include an 80 per cent white/20 per cent wholemeal sourdough and a seeded version with pumpkin, sunflower and linseed. Bestsellers cover both savoury and sweet: pork, apple and fennel sausage rolls, filled pastries, and seasonal Danishes. What to get: White sourdough, €5; pork, apple and fennel sausage roll, €4; pecan and caramel croissant, €4.80; summer greens Danish with St Tola goat's curd and Freamh Farm vegetables, €4.60; and Connemara organic blueberry cheesecake Danish, €4.60. Unit 12, The Cornstore, Galway, H91 CC44; Dún Artisan Bakery Dún Artisan Bakery, Dungarvan, Co Waterford. Photograph: Patrick Browne Fergal Walsh and Caitriona Keating run Dún as a true field-to-loaf micro bakery – every bread, croissant and pastry starts with Irish grain from mills such as Dunany and Oak Forest. They grow much of their own produce, keep bees for house honey, and use local suppliers for the rest. It's a tiny team doing everything by hand, from fermenting croissants for up to three days to turning out hearty seeded sourdough, spelt and emmer loaves. The fillings for the pastries come straight off their own farm: think strawberry and coriander herb purée with hazelnut creme diplomat, or red gooseberries and black basil Italian meringue. Savouries follow the same rule – a recent lattice had spiced whipped Macroom feta with crushed chickpea, and Ballinacourty onion with harissa chicken, Templegall, smoked scamorza and home-grown rocket. They bake six days a week, with Saturday specials showing off what the farm and local growers have – like a rye loaf with Ballinacourty potato and Garraí Mara rocket, or a tinned oat and Dungarvan honey loaf using their own hive honey. What to get: Seeded sourdough, €6; spelt loaf, €6; sourdough baguette, €3.50; croissant, €2.80; cruffin with redcurrant gel, oat and farm honey yoghurt; savoury swirl, €4.20; spiced whipped feta lattice, €4.50. 64 Main St, Dungarvan, Co Waterford, X35 DD30; Angel Dust Angel Dust bakery, Thomas Street, Limerick. Photograph: Liam Burke/Press 22 Stepping into Angel Dust feels like slipping into a Parisian patisserie – bright white interior, glass shelves stacked with vivid, jewel-like pastries. Opened in 2021 by Finn Robson, this high-end patisserie and Viennoiserie has become Limerick's place for exquisite French-style indulgence. Choux, eclairs, Paris-Brest, macarons, blood orange tarts and glossy croissants line the counter – all crafted with serious finesse and snapped up fast by locals who know there's no room for last-minute regrets here. Everything's done with a light hand and a perfectionist's eye: crisp shells, lush fillings, careful flavours that don't drown in sugar. If you want to bring a box home, get there early. What to get: Pain au chocolat, €3.10; elderflower and strawberry choux, €5.80; pistachio tart €5.80; and giant macarons, €5.80. Larger cakes for four are €25, go for fraissier with stawberries and vanilla. 12 Thomas Street, Limerick, V94 KXF1; Scéal Bakery Bread from Scéal Bakery at Elmhurst Cottage Farm, Glasnevin, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Charlotte Leonard-Kane and Shane Palmer met on day one of Culinary Arts at DIT – a partnership that took them to San Francisco's bread scene, River Cottage for Palmer, and Petersham Nurseries for Leonard-Kane. They started Scéal as a market stall in Dublin 8 in 2017, later operating from The Fumbally Stables Hatch, before opening their first standalone cafe-bakery by the waterfront in Greystones in February, 2024. Scéal keeps things seasonal and creative – sourdough, sweet and savoury pastries, choux buns with craquelin, flaky croissants and focaccia. Expect inspired flavours including sauerkraut, quince, masala chai and Irish cheeses, always using Irish growers and producers where they can. The morning bun and the 'everything croissant' are now firm signatures. What to get: Country sourdough, €5.50; Demerara sugar kouign-amann, €4.50; choux au craquelin (coffee and blackcurrant for July), €5.50; and whatever special Danish or seasonal bake is on the counter that week. Unit E, The Bracken, Marina Village, Greystones, Co Wicklow, A63 K7W7; Bread 41 Bread 41, 41 Pearse Street, Dublin 2. Photograph: Tom Honan Eoin Cluskey opened Bread 41 with one goal: real bread, milled and baked the old way but for a modern city. Every loaf starts with organic grains, milled onsite in their New American Stone Mill – a cold, stoneground process that preserves the vitamins and oils that get stripped out of industrial flour. The team works farm-to-fork: organic grains from Oak Forest Mills and Shipton Mill, local veg from McNally's Farm, eggs from North Wicklow, honey from Olly's Farm, dairy from The Village Dairy, and free-range pork from Pigs on the Green. They're B Corp certified, run on renewable energy, and keep waste and carbon footprint down wherever possible – right down to the high-efficiency ovens. Everything is hand-shaped and baked fresh each morning – from sourdough loaves to pastries – with a short supply chain and a big local following. What to get: Bread special of the week (Thu–Sun), €7; sausage roll, €5.70; croissant, €3.50; baker's selection of six pastries, €20. 41 Pearse St, Dublin 2, D02 H308; Stillorgan, Co Dublin, A94 C9A2; and Eden Rd, Rathdown Lower, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, A63 EH73; Hugo's Hugo's Bakery in Lahinch, Co Clare. Photograph: Liam Burke/Press 22 Hugo Galloway's pasteis de nata are widely claimed to be the best in Ireland – crisp pastry, silky custard, made fresh every day. But everything else coming out of his small blue-fronted bakery is worth the drive too: proper benchmark sourdough distributed locally, golden croissants and Viennoiserie, plus coffee from Anam, a local Kilfenora roaster. Hugo keeps the counter evolving, so watch out for what's new; perhaps canelés de Bordeaux. The bakery is right in the thick of Lahinch's community – surfers, locals and weekenders all know to queue early for a loaf, a pastry and a pastel de nata to eat before you even hit the street. What to get : Country Loaf 950g, €5.50; focaccia 850g, €5.50; ciabatta 350g, €2.50; croissant, €3 and pastel de nata, €2.40. Ennistymon Road, Dough, Lahinch, Co Clare, V95 XR58;
