One of Ireland's oldest women was the toast of a Co Monaghan town yesterday. Ms Margaret Gannon (104) sipped champagne as she joked with relatives and well-wishers at a party at St Mary's Hospital in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.
The President, Mrs McAleese, sent a special silver medallion to mark the fact that she had lived in three centuries. Before the celebrations, Ms Gannon took part in a tree-planting ceremony at the hospital. She said the secret of her long life was "hard work, wholesome food and a regular highball of whiskey and ginger ale".
