Glowing tribute to jovial, jolly and friendly North Longford woman Teresa Carolan

By Liam Caldwell
Longford Association in Dublin

American writer, Stephen Adly Guirgis, is credited with saying “no parent should have to bury a child.” Mercifully, this isn’t a frequent occurrence, at least in settled societies.

However, considering how random life can be, parents do suffer such grievous losses and occasionally, even more cruelly, loose children. Such awful experiences inevitably result in a lifetime of unimaginable pain.

Accepting that the death of a child is particularly inconceivable, the loss of anyone within the family leaves a deep mark; if the death is that of a sibling it is always sad, but if that sibling is among the younger members of the family it is all the harder to live with.

Sadly, our sister, Teresa Carolan (nee Caldwell), who died unexpectedly recently following a short illness, was third youngest in a family of nine.

Her untimely death (she was only in her sixties and indeed didn’t look her age) sits uneasily with those of us in our more senior years within the family, a feeling which may not be as uncommon as it may seem.

A few days before she died, sadly the small few of us around her hospital bedside were painfully aware of her prognosis.

She was alert, however, and recalled everyone’s name with impressive instancy as she opened her eyes to a touch on her hand.

But more impressive still was the sound of her voice: it seemed as though all concerns, worries and anxieties, which are the lot of the human condition, had melted away and her voice audibly exuded love for everyone present.

The experience was both heart-rending and profound.

Teresa was a much loved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend.

She was admired for her genuine openness and naturalness, and the way she expressed herself, in the sense of how she felt about things, was invariably real, without guile and with no hint of contrivance.

After primary school in Drumlish, she attended Longford Vocational School for three years. By all accounts she liked the atmosphere of Longford town back then and the sense of freedom it gave her.

Soon afterwards she began training as a hair stylist there with Angela Conlon, whose hairdressing salon was in Dublin Street.

She later moved to work for respected barber Mickey Kearney, whose business was then in Main Street, later moving to Ballymahon Street, Longford.

Teresa and Mickey got on well; those who knew noted that their working relationship evolved into that of co-workers as distinct from employer – employee.

And her open and pleasant personality stood her in good stead; the customers enjoyed her and she was really good at her job.

Although her family home in Cloonmacart, Drumlish wasn’t exactly a half a world away, Teresa elected to move to Longford town where she lived with a few other girls in a house in Church Street, next door to Mollaghan’s shop, long closed.

Some of her house mates included Rose Sloane (nee Bratten), Bridie Kenny (nee Mullervey), the late Maura Ferry and Ann Dowd.

Rose remembers Teresa as a ‘great jolly character with a real hearty laugh, always seeming to be flying around’.

For years afterwards they both exchanged Christmas cards. Rose described her and her then future husband, Tommy Carolan, as the happiest couple she knew.

And living in Longford town seemed to broaden Teresa’s musical horizons: Drumlish at that time was very much a Country Music enclave, Big Tom particularly providing its sound track.

On a weekend visit home from Dublin once, Teresa asked me if I’d heard of Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk singer, and what I thought of his then hit song ‘Sundown You’d Better Take Care’.

As it happened, I had then only recently seen him play live in Dublin’s National Stadium and was a fan at the time, and indeed liked that particular song. I was naturally impressed with her expanding musical tastes!

Teresa and Tommy got married in October 1977 and that meant Teresa returning to live in Cloonmacart, albeit to a new household. In time they had three in the family – Sinead, Deirdre and Mark.

Fr Liam Courtney, our cousin, who celebrated her funeral Mass, described Teresa as a very faithful person - her husband, Tommy, and her family were her focus and their care was, for her, a labour of love, he said.

“She was a very unique character and was very jovial, jolly and friendly. She enjoyed the banter and was never one to shirk a good discussion. Teresa was always straight forward, never hiding behind pleasantries or carefully chosen words; she just told it as she saw it.”

Finally, Fr Liam said Teresa had a deep and abiding faith - “it wasn’t ostentatious, but quietly lived in the church, seated at the side door and she had a word for everyone”, he concluded.

During Communion singer, Brid Shaughnessy, accompanied by guitarist and singer Mel Crowe, beautifully performed a moving rendition of ‘Remember Me Beautiful’ by American Country singer, Brandy Clarke. One of the song’s lines “Remember me happy when you remember what was”, could have been written specially for Teresa. They finished off with ‘My Native Town Drumlish’.

Sinead in a short, but appropriate eulogy to her mother thanked the medical staff of Mullingar General Hospital who looked after ‘mammy’ with such kindness, care and dignity.

On a lighter note she said her mother never again moved out of Cloonmacart “she liked it so much!”

Continuing, Sinead noted that her mother loved the simple life, rearing her family and ‘when the grandchildren came along this was a new chapter in her life.

She loved the craic and chat on her many daily visits to Drumlish – sometimes up to four – but she was happiest at home caring for Daddy over the last few years.

They lived a happy married life’, she said.

Finally, Sinead reserved a special thanks for their good and kind neighbours on the Cloonmacart lane for their generous support during their recent difficult weeks.

I can do no better than to end by quoting one of the many lovely messages to Teresa on rip.ie: ‘Teresa had that unique and endearing quality of innocence, good sense and concern for others, all wrapped up in one, which endeared her to family and her wide circle of friends’.

The members of The Longford Association in Dublin extend their deepest condolences to Tommy, Sinead, Deirdre and Mark, to both extended families and so many friends. Suaimhneas De da hanam dilis.

* Teresa Carolan (née Caldwell), Cloonmacart, Drumlish, Longford passed to her eternal reward on Wednesday, June 11, 2025.

She was predeceased by her parents William and Teresa, sister Margaret (McKenna) and brother Joe.

Deeply regretted by her beloved husband Tommy, son Mark, daughters Sinead (Burke) and Deirdre (Skelly), grandchildren Aoibheann, Molly, Sarah, Caoimhe and Tom, sons-in-law Padraig and Michael, brothers, sister Ann (O'Donnell), sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends.

Her Funeral Mass took place on Sunday, June 15 in St Mary’s Church, Drumlish.