Michael J O'Connor has survived the Spanish flu, the Irish civil war, two world wars and is now eagerly awaiting his Covid-19 vaccination.
The 107-year-old lives at home in Muckross, Co Kerry, and is one of the oldest people in Ireland. Mr O'Connor is also one of the oldest survivors of the last great pandemic to hit Europe, the Spanish flu, which he contracted as a young boy.
He remembers it vividly and was not expected to survive beyond the age of six. While he got over the illness, tragically, his mother did not. "It was double pneumonia, both my lungs were infected.
I could see my family crying, I was dying. I got through it, but mam did not." Born in Glencar, Kerry in 1913, Michael was five when World War I ended. "I remember there