Late local vet jack powell in film at nenagh cinema

Late local veterinarian Jack Powell features in a new Irish film that will be screened at Nenagh Ormond Cineplex this Wednesday and Thursday.
'Older than Ireland' is an Irish film about 30 people in Ireland aged 100 years of age or older. The film, which is funded by the Irish Film Board, won Best Irish Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh last July and was also nominated for the Bingham Ray New Talent Award.
Nenagh Ormond Cineplex will show the film on Wednesday September 30th and Thursday October 1st at 6:30pm.
Toomevara native Jack Powell is one of two Tipperary people in the film, along with Mary Buckley (100) of Emly. Jack died last February, four months shy of his 102nd birthday.
The youngest of five children, he was born at Blean, Toomevara in the year 1913. Qualifying as a veterinary surgeon in 1936, Jack decided to leave Irish shores and travelled to England where he joined the RAF and became a flight instructor.
Jack met his future wife Sheila through a college friend who had graduated from veterinary college at the same time as he. Jack married Sheila in 1943 and they settled in Tipperary where he built up a popular veterinary practice.
Sadly, Jack became a widower following Sheila’s death in 2004. Driving was one of Jack’s passions with his favourite car brand being Volkswagen. In 2011, he had the honour of being presented with a gold medal by President Mary McAleese for being the longest graduated vet in the country.
Jack was the second in his family to reach 100. He remembers clearly the day he reached that milestone age: “I woke up. I was 99. About four o'clock in the morning, I looked out, I said: ‘29th of May; hey you're hundred, get up’; so I got up.”