The granddaughter of a 107-year-old woman who has set off on a virtual tour of Irish masses is hoping Pope Francis will hear of her travels.

Nancy Stewart from Clonard in County Meath has already tuned in to masses in 21 counties in recent weeks – with 11 to go until she has visited every county in Ireland.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, her 37-year-old granddaughter Louise Coghlan said she has been isolating with Nancy since the pandemic began.

“As last year went on, we spent an awful lot of time trying to find things to do with each other,” she said.

“We have been cocooning since last March, which is a long time that granny has not been outside her door, so, we spent a lot of time, like everyone else, baking apple tarts and scones.

“Then we kind of move in before Christmas into hand writing and stuff and then we moved onto Facebook.  I was doing the Facebook Live and the page was ‘Living and Laughing with Lou’ but it turned into ‘Living and Laughing with Lou and Granny Nancy.’”

107-year-old Nancy Stewart and her granddaughter Louise Coghlan. Image: Facebook

She said the pair had intended to go on their virtual Irish tour before Christmas; however, plans were put on hold when Nancy became unwell.

“Thankfully, the miracle that granny Nancy is, in her 108^th year, here she is and she was feeling much better,” she said.

“So, I said, ‘will we go back on our tour for masses?’ and she said, ‘yeah where are we going?’ So, we go on the motorway sometimes and other times we take the backroads because you can see more.”

She said the tour has been “unbelievable” for Nancy.

“You see her sitting up in front of a laptop of my phone and I recently bought her headphones. She loves it, she’ll say, ‘I’ve never been in Galway Cathedral’ and then we head down the road to Mayo.

“We are in this red virtual car travelling around. There is no petrol money, we don’t need the kitchen and we have cups of tea in between and sure, at times, when you’re stuck, you just have to figure out other ways to do things.”

International

She said the tour may go international before long.

“The Irish college in Rome actually got in touch saying they would love to invite us along to attend one of their virtual masses so we will take them up on their offer and they are going to do a little greeting the day we are there,” she said.

“The world is our oyster and hopefully Pope Francis might hear our travels.”

Granny Nancy

Louise says she loves her Granny Nancy to bits and is delighted to join her on the tour.

“People talk about her age but it is only a number,” she said.

“We are all here for as long as we have and we all have to give to each other. If I give to Granny and she gives to me, that is the win of relationships and you know, we might as well be having some fun.

“Things are heavy enough and hard enough and tough enough as it is.”

You can listen back here: