THE secret to a long life is hard work and a raw egg in your dinner, according to one Fermanagh centenarian.

Noble Hetherington (100) learnt the raw egg trick from his grandfather, who lived until he was 103 but he preferred his raw egg in a cup of tea.

Noble enjoyed his birthday celebration yesterday (Wednesday), celebrating with family and friends at home in Newtownbutler, where he was visited by The Bishop of Clogher, The Rt. Revd Dr. Ian Ellis, and also Lord Brookeborough, who presented a card on behalf of The Queen.

Noble was born on June 30, 1921 in Lisnaskea. Son Cecil spoke on Noble’s early life to The Impartial Reporter, saying: “He was born in what is now the Cherry Tree Bakery in Lisnaskea, into a family which owned a number of shops in Lisnaskea and Newtownbutler, and some land in the Newtownbutler area.”

Cecil spoke on how business changed for the family as Noble grew up. He said: “During his childhood the Great Depression had a big effect on the businesses, and the family was left with just the small 30-acre farm in Kilgarrett where he and my mum still live.

A decent living

“In his early life, the main benefit of the land the family owned was that it was about one-third bog. This meant that they could make a decent living selling turf for firing to the local people. Da delivered turf locally by pony and cart for many years in his youth.”

Noble lived through many major world events. Cecil said: “He was 18 when World War II broke out, and he said he would have liked to go and join the RAF.

“His older brother Desy went away and served in the forces [Palestine Police] during the war. Da was expected to stay at home and help on the farm, so he did.

“He joined the Home Guard and trained with them. In wartime, because deliveries of food were scarce, the family grew vegetables such as potatoes in the fields and set traps to catch rabbits.”

Cecil added: “Da also has some stories about smuggling during that time as we are near the Border, although I don’t think he was actively involved in it!”

Noble remained passionate about farming, Cecil said. “Post-war, the farm became a small dairy farm, but he continued to run it in a quite old-fashioned way with a mix of activities.

“He kept hens and ponies, grew vegetables, had a few beef cattle as well as dairy, and even cut turf for the family hearth in the bog right up until the late 1980s.

“Da also rucked hay until about that time as well, progressing only slowly to ‘new-fangled’ methods such as baling. During my childhood in the 1970s and 80s. we baled hay if the weather was very good, but if the hay was of doubtful quality because of rain, we always rucked it - even if it was a large field.

“Some of my brother and sister’s best childhood memories are of those summer days at haymaking and turf cutting time.”

Noble married his wife Margaret in 1965 and rebuilt the Kilgarrett home place which was until that point, a thatched cottage.

The pair have three children; John, Jean and Cecil and they are proud grandparents to eight grandchildren.