Eithne Healy, RIP – from Fore Abbey to Abbey Road
Last week news filtered through about the passing of Eithne Healy (née Flood), of Hounslow House, Fore, Castlepollard, peacefully at home, on February 22, 2026, surrounded by her loving family after a long illness bravely borne.
Eithne had many achievements through her life, from raising her children Deirdre, Gráinne, Ronan and Nollaig, to her work in developing tourism in the area.
This is the article from 2009 when Westmeath Examiner journalist, Una O’Neill D’Arcy, spoke to the fore woman about being part of a moment in entertainment history.
“In 1963, two young sisters from Fore, who had got themselves jobs at the Astoria Cinema in Finsbury Park, London were taken to one side and asked to come in early the next morning. They were not told why and they didn’t think to ask.
Little did the sisters know that they were about to be captured forever in a piece of photographic cultural history. Eithne and Úna Flood, from Sallymount, Fore, were to have their photo taken by Terence Spencer, with an up-and-coming young band from Liverpool, The Beatles, for the world-famous Life magazine, as part of a special photo essay on the band.
Just two months later, The Beatles would kick off their now historic and triumphant tour of the United States, Beatlemania would sweep the world and London would take its place at the heart of a cultural revolution that crowned it the hottest, hippest place on the planet.
Spencer recalled the shoot saying, “their lives were about to be transformed beyond all expectations, including their own. They really hadn’t taken in what was happening to them.”
The sisters were equally unfazed by the photoshoot, Eithne Flood, who became Eithne Healy, now runs the popular bed and breakfast business Hounslow House, said she wasn’t overwhelmed by the appearance of the Beatles.
“We just came in early like we were asked and took part in the shoot. There were a number of great acts in The Astoria that year. While I liked the Beatles, I wasn’t a mad fan, but it was great and a lovely experience,” Eithne said. “I do remember that they once said that they loved Jelly Babies and so every night, their fans would shower the stage with Jelly Babies.”
These days, Eithne plays down her pop culture moment and instead enjoys a much older history, that of her homeplace.
The drawing room, which looks out across the valley of Fore, is like a library, filled with books for guests to read all about Fore.
The photograph including Eithne and her sister Una was used again in 1994, as the front cover of a book ‘It was Thirty Years Ago Today’, which contained a series of Spencer’s Beatles photographs that had resurfaced. Those photos were a collection of intimate, backstage shots taken when Spencer travelled with the band for four months in 1963/1964 which present an uninhibited portrait of The Beatles just as they exploded on to the world stage.
The Beatles were part of a Variety Show designed by Brian Epstein, that ran at the Astoria Cinema in Finsbury Park, London for 16 nights around Christmas 1963. The tickets went on sale on October 21, 1963, and by November 16, all 100,000 had sold out.
There were 30 shows altogether and Beatles fans were also entertained by the Barron Knights and Duke Diamond. Tommy Quickly and The Fourmost, and Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas as well as Liverbird singing sensation Cilla Black and Oz legend Rolf Harris.
The Beatles closed each night with a 25-minute set that included Roll Over Beethoven, All My Loving, This Boy, I Wanna Be Your Man, She Loves You, Till There Was You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Money (That’s What I Want) and Twist And Shout.
“The Beatles also took to the stage for a number of light-hearted skits that gave the night a real panto feel but didn’t raise them any great acclaim as either comedians or actors.”