My grandmother Maureen Byrne, who has died aged 86 of lung cancer, was devoted to her family and was a much-loved member of the Irish community in Wood Green, north London. She was a devout Catholic and followed the words often attributed to Mother Teresa: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”
Born Ann Dalton in Cabra, Dublin, but always known as Maureen, she was one of nine children of Annie (nee Foy) and Michael Dalton, a tailor. Two siblings died in infancy and her mother died when Maureen was 10.
Maureen was educated in Dublin. She was always fiercely protective of her siblings. According to family legend, once, when her sister Carmel was bullied at school aged eight, Maureen, just a year or two older, confronted the perpetrators. At the age of 18 she contracted tuberculosis and spent three years in isolation.
After recovering, in the late 1950s Maureen joined thousands who moved from Ireland to London in search of work. She took various jobs, including, for a time, at a chocolate factory. In 1960, while visiting her brother, Maureen went to the Queen Adelaide pub, Shepherd’s Bush, where she met the head barman, a quiet Waterford man named Tony Byrne. They married in 1960 and settled in Wood Green. Tony worked as a cleaner on the London Underground.
Maureen and Tony had five children. When they had all started school she went to work part-time at Zetters football pools in Clerkenwell. As the children grew up and married, Maureen loved their wives, husbands and partners as though they were her own.
She went to St Paul’s Catholic church in Wood Green for more than 60 years and made many friends in the Irish community. At the local community centre Maureen joined other women of a similar age; they encouraged each other to take up exercise and they all enjoyed the companionship on offer.
Maureen was an avid watcher of Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and a fan of Catherine Cookson novels. She loved to entertain people and to make them laugh, enjoyed a pint of lager, and had a keen sense of mischief. When asked by a grandchild why she never went to confession, Maureen responded: “I have never sinned, so I have nothing to confess.”
In recent years Maureen had suffered from thyroid illness and diabetes, and underwent heart surgery. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2018. She never loast her zest for life or her sense of fun.
Maureen is survived by Tony, their five children, nine grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and by a brother, Kieran, and sister, Carmel.
