SLIGO’S MOTHER TERESA!
The remarkable, energetic Teresa Flaherty told Gerry McLaughlin about her many years clocking up the kilometres for great causes
THIS IS for Sligo’s own “Mother Teresa” – Teresa Flaherty! There are some special people who leave you with a warm glow when you leave them. People who are kind, caring, honest to a fault and who truly give and never count the cost. And the really special Teresa is one of that select band.
They are people of deep faith who only see the good in others. They are the ones those who are truly blessed and bless others.
And Teresa is bubbling with natural mirth and loves to entertain.
She’s a natural performer as she bursts into a spirited rendition of that tragic ballad ‘The Butcher Boy’ – and, in honour of her caller, ‘The Homes of Donegal’.
Teresa is in her 81st year, but in her great, big heart she will always be 18. She’s a woman who has walked all over the world for the benefit of others and who has raised over tens of thousands of euro for various charities through her various walks – including Portugal in 1997, Florida in 1999, Cuba in 2004 and Thailand in 2006.
She has also walked in the Holy Land and in Canada. And India and Boston were on her itinerary in 2005. Teresa has taken part in 100km walks all over the world in aid of cystic fibrosis, and she had to raise €4,000 on each occasion.
And then there is the not so small matter of 25 Dublin City Marathons, a London Marathon and several mini-marathons.
She also took part in the famous Warriors Run in Strandhill.
Her home in Emmett Place is a shrine to her achievements, which are all the more remarkable as she did not start walking until the 1990s during her time working in Abbott. Items of interest at her residence include photographs of Teresa with some of her many great friends like Ray and the late Elaine MacSharry (for whom she worked as a housekeeper for many years), Joanie Scanlon, Bernadette Pugh, Mairead Jennings and Patsy O’Hara.
Teresa and the MacSharry family on Pearse Road have a special bond that will live as long as she lives. There are scores of certificates and various mementos of her career on the roads. And she went to a lot of trouble to open her files to show them to this writer.
In the front window of her home is the Sacred Heart, which is a very important part of this warm and essentially gentle soul.
She is very well known on the roads in and around Sligo – a powerfully built athlete who can talk the talk but more importantly walk the walk for others.
There is nobody in Sligo who has walked so much for charities.
Her fundraisers are legendary around the town and she does not entertain the word “no” when she is in full gear for a particular cause.
She said: “People are great. They never say no to me, even though they must be tired of seeing me and my old bucket or sponsorship cards.”
In other spheres, Teresa has sung in the Tops of the Town, was briefly a kissogram, has dressed up as Mother Teresa, and even played the part of a
boxer in a fundraiser many years ago. And although a very humble person, she has no fears of the stage and loves to perform.
She is also a person who has a deep respect for the departed and describes them as having “gone to God”.
Teresa is a woman who has worked hard all her life and is rightly proud of her home in Emmett Place, which she owns thanks to her great work ethic. Her great work has been honoured in Sligo – she was a Sligo Person of the Year Community Award Winner in 1995 and got a ‘Special Person’ award during the Sligo 750 celebrations. Teresa got an award entitled ‘Passion for the World Around Us’ from Sligo Chamber of Commerce.
She has worked for many charities and has done especially sterling work for cystic fibrosis and for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland.
TERESA was born in Dublin in 1942 and lived and worked in Summerhill in Athlone and with the Mercy nuns in Sligo. In 1965, she became housekeeper for Ray and the late Elaine MacSharry and their six children, where she spent many happy years.
She said: “Those were some of the greatest days of my life and the family were and are still very good to me. “I was a live-in housekeeper and there was great craic with the children about the place – I used to love to hear them laughing. That was a very happy time for me.”
“I had been working in Roscommon and it was through the Neilans that I came to meet the MacSharrys.” Teresa later went working in the Sligo Southern Hotel, and after that worked at Abbott for 26 happy years. And one suspects that Teresa created mirth and joy wherever she worked, thanks to her unique personality.
She said: “I was never afraid of hard work – it does you no harm at all. “I was working in Roscommon and the Neilans got to know me. That is how Mr MacSharry got to know about me and how I came back to Sligo.
“He and his family took great care of me when I came back to Sligo. I was around 23 years of age at the time. “I was Ray MacSharry’s right-hand woman and I have all their pictures in the house.
“I lived in their house for many years and that was a great experience. “Mrs MacSharry used to always tell me to read books and keep reading. “They still have me at their Christmas dinner every year.
“I worked in the county hospital for a while and in the Southern Hotel before I got work in Abbotts.”
Teresa has never married. When asked why, she said: “I wasn’t meant for marriage.”
And when asked where her great love of walking came from, she said: “It was something that was in my head to stop me thinking about sad times. “Times were hard, and I always wanted to do something for people who were poor or sick, and it made me happy doing it, too.
“I remember a nun who I knew in Sligo who was very good to the poor – she used to bring them food. I thought that she was a great person and, like her, I wanted to help the poor and the broken.
“There were good nuns and I think they should have been allowed to go out socialising with the people.” Teresa started walking for charity first in the 1990s during her time with Abbott.
She said: “The girls in Abbott were very good to me.”
Teresa then showed me some of her many certificates she has received for her charitable works, of which she should rightly be proud.
And she repeatedly checks to see if I want tea and something to eat!
She said: “My first big walk was in South Africa and it was just so beautiful. It was something that would not be fit to put into words.
“We went to Cape Town and it was the experience of a lifetime.
“We had been sending money out to the poor Zulus, and went to visit.
“The people had such a great welcome for us in South Africa.
“Instead of going to a hotel for our lunch we went into a hall where the young girls showed me how their mammies made dresses for them. “They told us how the money we were sending out to them was being used to educate the children.
“There was great history there. We also went to see monasteries out there – and it was very educational. “I did a 100km walk when I was there. We were out there for seven days.
“They gave me a prize of a green hat for my walk, and they showed me how they did their own dances.
“They were brilliant and I got on great with them.”
Teresa then segued into a story about her time in Cuba in 2004.
SHE SAID: “What a wonderful country. We were in one of the biggest concert halls that you would ever get to see. It was as big as a whole street and there was a huge helicopter in the place.
“And around the walls were pictures of all the great film stars – I would say a lot of them have gone to God by now. “It was a great concert, and I will never forget it as long as I live.” Between the jigs, reels and hornpipes, as they say, Teresa ended up on the stage. And she did her best to show what she could do.
She said: “There was one boy who lifted me up on the counter and said, ‘I love you, I love the Irish!’”
“I am not good at talking or writing but my brain is good when there is music or entertainment and I am not nervous on the stage.”
Before that Teresa was in Portugal
“I knew a nun in Sligo who was very good to the poor. I thought that she was a great person and, like her, I wanted to help the poor and broken”