THERE really is something in the Wild Atlantic Way air it seems with more Donegal people than ever before living beyond their 100th birthday.

 

New figures show there are currently 50 people in the county aged 100 and over, second only to Galway.

 

In another first, the number of centenarians Ireland-wide has passed the 1000 mark – more than twice the number recorded in the census two years ago.

 

The statistics, when taken on a per capita basis, show how the secret to a long life appears to lie along the west coast.

 

According to the Department of Employment, Affairs and Social Protection, Galway has the most centenarians with 66 people living to 100 and beyond, followed by Donegal with 50, Kerry with 46 and Mayo with 44.

 

There are six 108-year-olds living in Ireland however there are no known ‘super-centenarians’ – those aged 110 and above.

 

Despite the dramatic increase in long livers though, Ireland still does not feature as one of the world’s ‘blue zones’.

 

A recent mapping exercise looked at the five locations that are home to the oldest and healthiest people in the world.

 

They include Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, Nicoya, Costa Rica, Loma Linda, California and Ikaria in Greece.

 

Experts have been unable to pinpoint the exact reason for the sudden burst in the number of Donegal people living to blow out 100 candles although it is no secret that the county’s population is getting older.

 

Census figures released last year showed how the average age of a Donegal citizen is now 38.5 years. That is compared to 36.7 years in 2011.

 

Professor Kieran Walsh of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology at NUI Galway is involved in a study of the relationship between older people and their surrounding environment.

 

He said the common thread he found in those living beyond 100 years was that they “aren’t passive citizens but remain actively engaged with their communities and are still contributing in some way”.

 

“If you have six people currently aged 108 in Ireland, I would be pretty sure that they would all be quite different from each other.

 

“Living to 100 and over is not just about pension entitlements and access to care but it is also about being engaged socially,” Professor Walsh said.

 

Dungloe-based Rory Cleary is the Chair of the North West branch of Active Retirement Ireland. He said that with Irish people living longer, the Government needed to be prepared to cater for an aged population.

 

“It used to be the case that people did not do a lot when they retired, they simply put their feet up. But now with the facilities we have, retirement is seen as an opportunity to live healthily and happily well into those later years,” Mr Cleary said.

 

“In Ireland the facilities on offer are better than in the UK, particularly in terms of transport, and by that I mean bus passes and train passes. What we have here is fantastic and it is something we cannot afford to use.

 

“The biggest problem I foresee is that traditionally in Ireland many older people have had children around to look after them. Because of emigration and other factors, that is not necessarily the case any longer and what I would like to see is more sheltered accommodation being provided where you have 30 or 40 apartments in the one place and they become like little communities within communities.

 

“Here in Ireland families do tend to look after their elderly relatives better than they do in the UK but as things progress, I think the Government should look at what facilities there are.”