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Eileen motors on!

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Eileen Lovett has been buying cars from Higgins Motorpark/Higgins Garage since 1929 and she recently collected her 23rd car from the garage - a 2010 Ford Focus which she bought for her daughter.  Mrs Lovett who will turn 99 this year, began driving at 12 years of age in her home town of Clifden where her family ran a bakery business, Lydon’s. While still at primary school her first journey as a driver was in 1923 when her mother asked her to go and collect some butter in the bakery van. Then, at age 17, she bought her first Ford from Higgins Garage in Galway (which went on to become Motorpark), a Ford 14.9 model, for £198.  Eileen loved it from the first day she drove it and went on to clock up thousands of miles in the car as she delivered goods from the bakery to hotels and schools around Connemara and beyond. After two years of driving for the family bakery, Eileen went to Dublin where she trained as a nurse in Jervis Street Hospital.  She had a short career in nursing before she got married to her husband, Michael Lovett, a school teacher, in 1938.  Eileen always went back to Higgins Motorpark in Galway when she needed a new car.  Even at 98 years of age, Eileen can list by heart all 22 Ford cars from her driving career including the registration numbers!