John Margaret and Bishop. Photos: Margaret Haughey. An Apostolic worker in Elphin Diocese has been awarded a ‘Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award’ at the Apostolic Workers Display Day on June 7 after more than 50 years of dedicated work. This award is one of the highest honours bestowed by the papacy and is given to Catholics who have shown a long and significant history of service to their local parish or diocese. This award brought on “utter shock” for recipient Margaret Haughey.
Born in 1943, Margaret Haughey came from a small rural area in Co. Roscommon in the parish of St John’s. Growing up amid the Second World War, Haughey’s family resided on a small farm where things were “quite poor”. From a young age and humble beginnings, Ms Haughey was determined to bring an abundance of good to those less fortunate.
Ms Haughey’s apostolic work began after an interaction with a woman from a nearby parish. She married her husband in 1970 and had six children. After just a few years of living in her family home, her calling began.
“I was about three, four years in the home that I’m still in when a lady from a neighbouring parish came and asked me if I would sew some cushions for work for the missions. I was very good with my hands, so I took it on,” Ms Haughey explained.
“She told me about the chalices and how people donate them for people that have died and I thought this was absolutely lovely. I donated one for my dad, and I think from then on, I was hooked in apostolic work,” she informed The Irish Catholic.
Vocation
After deciding that this was going to be the beginning of her journey, Ms Haughey said that she normally did her work behind closed doors as she prioritised the commitment of being a mother. “For a good number of years, I kept it in the background,” she said.
All of Ms Haughey’s work has been completed in the Fuerty Parish, Co. Roscommon, in the Diocese of Elphin. When she started her apostolic work, she decided that she needed spiritual guidance.
“I turned to St Thérése for the missions, and it just grew and grew. Every time I needed something, or someone asked me for something for the missions, I’d say to myself, ‘St Thérése wants us on the missions, it’ll come. I’ll get it,’” she stated.
She hatched a plan of knitting chickens, decorating them, filling them with a Creme Egg and selling them”
The Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice recipient is well-known for her apostolic work but additionally for her work in founding the “chicken fund.” The chicken fund began in 2006. A priest from her diocese was travelling around South America and needed a motorcycle and £2,000 to support religious instruction programmes for teenagers. At the time she said there was “no way the diocese had the money” for that type of cost.
After taking on the role of treasurer in the late 90s and then presidency, Ms Haughey devised a new way to produce funds for the diocese.
She hatched a plan of knitting chickens, decorating them, filling them with a Creme Egg and selling them.
“A lady had given me a pattern for the chickens about two years beforehand. One day I found the pattern and said this could work. So, I knitted the chicken, and I decorated it, and I put the Creme Egg in it,” she explained.
Dedication
This differed from usual methods of raising funds for the missions. Typically, people have conducted cake sales, raffles or church gate collections in the past. Consequently, scepticism brewed throughout members of the diocese in regard to Ms Haughey’s idea.
The initiative has since supported some of the most vulnerable communities”
“They laughed at me. They thought it was ridiculous that I’d make £2,000 out of those little chickens. Nobody was inclined to say ‘we’ll give it a try’,” she said. Ms Haughey pursued her idea and chipped away at it over time. “I never told them how much I had collected until I presented the big display check months later, and it was over £6,000. They were so delighted,” she explained.
The chicken fund helps to raise funds for three major projects each year. The initiative has since supported some of the most vulnerable communities. Today, the chicken fund has raised over €350,000.
Ms Haughey has been dedicated in her apostolic work through parish visits, speaking at Masses, participating in radio interviews and more. She is often on the road meeting people who wish to sponsor items or donate. Alongside her commitment to the Apostolic Workers, she has remained involved in her local parish Altar Society for over 40 yrs and Reader of the Word through prayer and other services.
Award
Upon receiving the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award at the Apostolic Workers Display Day, Ms Haughey explained that she couldn’t believe it. “I was in complete and utter shock. It took me two or three days afterwards before really thinking how prestigious it was and how humbling it was, that somebody thought that much of me,” she told The Irish Catholic.
The Apostolic Workers are a voluntary national missionary organisation, founded in 1923. Through their work, missionary Orders receive vestments, Mass kits, chalices and other items, often sponsored by people in memory of deceased relatives.
On the day of the award, Ms Haughey explained that she was completely unaware that she was going to be the recipient. In fact, many of her children surprised her that day by attending the Mass.
I formed some brilliant friendships over the years with people. I don’t remember half of them that I had helped”
Bishop Kevin Doran read the citation outlining Ms Haughey’s work and achievements, before her son John surprised her by bestowing the ceremonial pin on her. “I honestly thought it was the 91-year-old nun that was going to get something because she had been on the missions and she sold as many chickens as any of us this year,” she said.
“I am really humbled by it since. So many people have been so kind and wished me well. It’s just unreal,” she reflected.
The Fuerty Parish member explained that her award is also a credit to the people she had met along her journey. “I formed some brilliant friendships over the years with people. I don’t remember half of them that I had helped, so I know I did an awful lot.”
She told The Irish Catholic that people often leave donations at her door for the missions as she still remains the secretary of the diocese. She spends most days working for the missions and keeps up to date with correspondence, while also organising and delivering eggs for the chicken fund.