She drank pints, appeared in parades and ended up stuffed, recalls Clodagh Finn

BEFORE a big appearance, Big Bertha needed a shot of whiskey to steady her nerves. Or at least that's what owner Jerome O'Leary said when the Kerry cow celebrity stepped out one year to lead the St Patrick's Day parade as it made its way through the heart of Sneem in south Kerry.

By a strange coincidence, it was Big Bertha's birthday -- she was born on March 17, 1944 -- but the reason she was elected parade Grand Marshall year after year was because she held not one but two world records.

The Droimeann cow entered the 'Guinness Book of Records' as the oldest cow ever recorded when she died just three months shy of her 50th birthday in 1993 -- outliving the average cow by more than 20 years. She also holds the breeding record, having produced 39 calves.

It's even possible that she holds a third record -- as a charity cash cow. Big Bertha helped raise several thousand euro for cancer research in her lifetime.

Jerome O'Leary had reason to be proud and he didn't miss an opportunity to say so. Although quietly spoken, the bachelor farmer loved the publicity and said that he wanted his cow to be immortalised.

He bought Big Bertha at a cattle fair and she lived on his farm at Blackwater near Sneem all her life. She was a Droimeann cow, which is a native Irish breed but not one that is especially known for its longevity.

In the 1980s as her age advanced, Big Bertha started to attract attention and Jerome, with help from a neighbour, the late Donie Riney, set about arranging 'guest appearances' at festivals and shows to raise money for charity.

Bertha's star was in the ascendant and she became a local -- then national and international -- star, making headlines all around the world.

She was papped regularly on her annual circuit of fair days, shows and festivals and it wasn't unusual to see her at a bar counter either, where she was, unsurprisingly, the talk of the pub.

It was entirely fitting then that she would be waked in style in the local pub when she died on New Year's Eve in 1993.

At the time, Mr O'Leary said that she fell sick some five weeks before.

"We did everything we could for her and are sorry that she could not make her 50th birthday on St Patrick's Day next year," he was quoted as saying in this newspaper.

The wake at the Blackwater Tavern in Sneem was "packed to suffocation", and in the words of travel writer Turtle Bunbury who happened across it by chance, there were fiddles and bodhrans rattling out of darkened corners and "old men guffawing into creamy black pints at every turn".

The best, however, was yet to come. When news filtered through that Big Bertha was to be stuffed, people thought at first that it was a Kerry joke. This cow was exceptional in life but she was destined to be make history in death too. In early 1994, she was taken to a taxidermist in Castleisland in north Kerry and stuffed.

A few years later, in February 2000, Jerome O'Leary died. At the time, Killarney man Pat O'Connell paid tribute to him, telling 'The Kerryman' he was a gentleman who was softly spoken and always interested in cancer fundraising.

Meanwhile, his pride and joy, Big Bertha, continues to be large as life. She is still getting visitors in her new home at Hazel Fort Farm Guest Cottages in Beaufort, Killarney.

She's a big hit, says proprietor George Kelly. "People from all over the world have seen her. Some would have heard of her, but others are told the story," he says.

Some of her offspring are still in the locality but, while one of them lived to 35, none have challenged Big Bertha herself. Her world records are unbeaten and look likely to remain that way, as the 'Guinness Book of Records' removed the categories in which she excelled in 2006.