| DEIRDRE
ITA
JERROLD (nee BRENNAN) 1918 to
2010
Deirdre Ita Jerrold, known as Derry to her family and friends, was born in Dublin on the 16th October 1918 amidst the turmoil of the Irish War of Independence. She was the third daughter of Robert Brennan and Una Bolger who had both been involved in the 1916 Easter Rising During this troubled period while their parents were on the run, Derry and her older sister, Maeve, were sent to live in Wexford with their aunt Bessie at the family farm called Coolnaboy, in Oylegate. After the children returned to Dublin, they continued to spend holidays at Coolnaboy, and Derry's fondest memories were always of Bessie and the farm because she loved to be around animals, especially cows. She loved to help Bessie bring the cows in from the fields by running ahead and opening the numerous gates along the lane that led to the farmhouse. In Dublin, the family lived in Ranelagh in a small terraced house which was later immortalised in the writings of Derry's sister, Maeve. Derry's first school was Miss Gavin-Duffy's where everything was taught through the Irish language. She did not like school and would have preferred to stay at home and look after her new baby brother. Later Derry and Maeve went to a boarding school run by the Cross and Passion nuns in Wicklow. When Derry was fifteen, her father was appointed First Irish Minister to the USA and the family moved to Washington D.C. It was there, at a White House ball, that Derry met her future husband, Gilbert Jerrold, who was a French aeronautical engineer. They were married in 1940 and had five children, Jan, Noel (who died at three months), Yvonne, Alan and Suzanne. After Gilbert died in 1950 Derry returned to Ireland with her children and lived in Dublin until 2005 when she moved to England to live, first with her daughter, Suzanne, in London and later with her other daughter, Yvonne. in Cambridge. She died peacefully in her sleep in Cambridge on the 28th June 2010 and was buried in Oylegate, Wexford, Ireland. She leaves three surviving children, nine grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a large black cat called Coco. Una Bolger & Robert Brennan page Family Trees
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