Irene Haney

Irene Sullivan Haney, 87, of Centerville, Massachusetts passed away peacefully on October 6, 2025, surrounded by her family.

Irene was a joyous enthusiast.

She rode ziplines and loved helicopter rides. She specialized in flower arranging and blueberry pie making. She knit all her children's sweaters.

She loved the opera, Shakespeare and the symphony. The Cape Cod Cinema and the Osterville public library, Audubon's Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary, PBS and Our Lady of Victory.

She was politically engaged and civically active. She loved the theater, read novels voraciously and wrote with grace. She loved orchids, Baltimore Orioles and owls, stargazing, finding antiques and two pieces of homemade chocolate birthday cake. Stewartias, gardenias and fresh herbs. She swam daily all summer and was still playing golf this fall. She loved tennis.

How she loved the Red Sox! She loved canasta, crosswords and New Yorker jigsaw puzzles. Hymns, walks on the beach, travel abroad and buzzing around town. Dogs. All Dogs - but especially Irish Terriers. Hosting and being hosted. Getting dressed up. A little competition, a stimulating conversation, a fun party.

She looked for beauty everywhere - and she found it.

She loved her kids and their spouses, unconditionally. Her grandchildren and their partners, fiercely. Her husband, completely. Her extended family and her local friends. Really, she loved it all. Every damn bit of it. She loved life.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut on February 5, 1938, Irene was the daughter of the late George E. and Helen T. Sullivan, and is also predeceased by her siblings, George E. Sullivan and Joyce Rita Donlon. Irene was a devoted wife to the late William M. Haney, Jr. and a loving mother to William M. Haney, III (and his wife, Maura) of Boston, Patricia H. DiRuggiero (and her husband, Gerard) of Newport and Jonathan P. Haney of Centerville. She was the proud grandmother of Julia, Amelia and Finn Haney, and Meg and Jessie DiRuggiero.

A private mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at Portsmouth Abbey on October 20th. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to WGBH Boston or to Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary in Barnstable.