Mary McPoyle, Magilligan, County Derry

Not long before picture was taken, Mary was still climbing Binevenagh to cut peat. She lived most of her life in the small thatched cottage in which she was born with her sister Sarah, making tea over the fire, smoking the occasional cigarette, and feeding guests persistent quantities of home cooked meals and tales of nighttime boat trips across Lough Foyle to Donegal in order to smuggle Free State butter beneath the folds of her skirt. She never married, although Sarah pointed out she once had a beau, "who gave her a pair of shoes as a gift," they laughed. But he had a habit for the bottle for which Mary had no interest.

So that was that.