Rita Lowry death and Christy Ring photograph, Digi Mart USA News (Ireland): Rita Lowry, widely known as the ‘blood and bandage lady,’ who featured in an iconic 1952 photograph of Christy Ring, has died aged 99, according to the Irish Examiner.
Mrs Lowry, née Fenton, was born in Ballygarvan, Cork, in 1927, one of nine children. She played camogie with Ballygarvan in her youth and was a devoted follower of the Cork hurlers before moving to Tipperary town in 1948 to work in the post office.
There she joined the Seán Treacy camogie club and went on to play for Tipperary. She featured on the Tipperary team beaten by Cork in the 1952 Munster camogie final at the Cork Athletic Grounds.
She also made an impression after the Munster hurling final at Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds that year, appearing with a bloodied and bandaged Christy Ring in an iconic photograph that ran in what was then the Cork Examiner. The picture is displayed at Páirc Uí Rinn, the Cork GAA stadium named in Ring’s honour.
Ring had been instrumental in Cork’s 1-11 to 2-6 win, ending Tipperary’s four-in-a-row hopes and paving the way for Cork’s three in a row of Munster and All-Ireland titles.
In a 2016 interview with the Irish Examiner, Mrs Lowry recalled that she had been trying to get a photo with Christy on her Kodak box camera. She said she had been good friends with Ring, who wrote to her and sent Christmas cards for many years afterward.
Her efforts to capture Ring after his final heroics became a habit of a lifetime. Mrs Lowry was a keen collector of GAA photos and news clippings throughout her life and kept a scrapbook tracking Ring’s exploits.
Living in Tipperary, however, her loyalties gradually became divided, and she even ranked Jimmy Doyle alongside Ring.
Mrs Lowry is predeceased by her husband John and is survived by daughters Catherine, Mary, Ann and Imelda, and sons Jimmy and Johnny, as well as many grandchildren and other family and friends.
She is reposing at Fogarty’s Funeral Home, Blind Street, Tipperary Town, on Friday from 5.30pm, with removal at 7.30pm to St Michael’s Church, Tipperary. Requiem Mass will be held Saturday at 10.15am.
