No fowl play suspected as Trixie dies!

The turkey with more lives than a cat finally met her maker in 2019.

Trixie the Turkey, one Galway’s best-known feathered friends – who had lived for many years at St Mary’s Nursing Home in the city – passed away earlier this year.

Aged seven, and believed to be the oldest turkey in Ireland, Trixie had survived six Christmases.  She died peacefully – of natural causes – at her new perch at Kiltormer Nursing Home.

“It’s the end of an era,” said Gordon Glynn of Kiltormer Nursing Home. “She’s gone to the farm in the skies. She was seven years old, and died of old age.

“Turkeys don’t tend to live that long,” he added.

Trixie was thriving last year – her sixth Christmas, and first living out the countryside. She had been spared the chop for five Christmases at St Mary’s.

Trixie had been destined for the dinner table of St Mary’s in December 2013. But fate and a broken wing intervened to save her from the oven – she was put on a course of antibiotics . . . and turkeys on medication cannot be eaten.

The residents became so attached to Trixie, they voted not to eat her the following Christmases either, even though she was bred for the Christmas market.

She was sold on last year and had adjusted to life in Kiltormer, according to Mr Glynn, where they have a large aviary with ducks, hens, and peacocks, as well as Trixie’s two trusted pals, alpacas Barney and Al Pacino (formerly known as Happy and Larry).

The nursing home introduced another turkey to the aviary earlier this year – a male, called Trixie II – who took a bit of a shine to Trixie.

The two birds had to be separated, said Mr Glynn, because Trixie was finding it difficult to stave off the younger male’s amorous advances.

She died peacefully in March, and is remembered fondly by the 29 residents of Kiltormer Nursing Home, who are mostly from farming backgrounds, and love feeding the animals kept there.

“It is the end of an era. RIP Trixie,” said Mr Glynn.