'An outstanding person': Former lady mayoress was a gift to so many throughout her life

It was tragic, but also fitting, that former lady mayoress and ‘fierce adoption advocate’, Ursula Shannon, died on Christmas Day, the day that brings great gifts. Ursula was such a gift to so many people throughout her, too short, life.

Ursula was married to Fianna Fáil city councillor Terry Shannon, whom she first met at a Cork junior chamber meeting when she heckled him loudly from the floor.

It was to prove a level of energetic engagement that continued through their long and very happy marriage, during which they raised four children, Robert, Conor, Katie and Emily. Their family were joined, in 2022, by their granddaughter Bláthnaid.

The celebration of her life held on December 30 was attended by hundreds of mourners, including Lord Mayor, Green Party councillor Dan Boyle, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

Addressing the celebration, Ursula’s long-time friend Kate Durrant said: “When I think of Ursula it’s that song from the Sound of Music that plays in my head ‘What do we do with a problem like Maria,’ because I can only imagine when Terry walked into the lord mayor’s office in 2011, with Ursula at his side as Cork’s first lady, they must have wondered what to do with Ursula too.

“Unlike any lady mayoress the city had ever seen before, Ursula breezed into City Hall, runners on her feet, straight from the hockey pitch, greeting visiting dignitaries and school children with equal enthusiasm,” she said.

“Ursula was so proud to stand by Terry’s side during his tenure as lord mayor, throughout a wonderful year that saw them sprinkle their unique blend of Cork magic across distant counties and countries. Ursula wonderfully representing the city she loved, in her own unique way. She was, she is, the very best of us.”

Ursula was, in her own words, “trafficked to Ireland for adoption”, and following the death of Ursula’s much-loved parents she began her search for her birth family.

Despite the many challenges that journey posed she took many people with her. Putting her considerable energy and time into helping others on the same road, becoming a fierce advocate for those searching, petitioning the British Houses of Parliament, demanding that they “find their moral compass for those that have suffered and those who are still suffering”.

Ursula’s search ultimately led to her finding her birth mother Mary, before meeting, under the clock at Paddington Station, her sister Sarah and brother Dave, who, along with their respective families, become an important part of who she was.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, a long-standing and close family friend, said he “grew up in politics” with Terry and Ursula.

“We are deeply saddened at the loss of Ursula, she was an outstanding person, a loving mother and grandmother, and a tremendous support to Terry,” Mr Martin said.

“She had a tremendous knowledge of the constituency and was very caring and very anxious to get problems solved, she worked with Terry a lot in terms of issues in the ward and problems people would have had, and was always so delighted with his election success even when she was battling illness herself.”

Mr Shannon’s council colleague Mary Rose Desmond, who had worked with Ursula on the Tall Ships together when they came to Cork back in 1991, added: “She was a very strong community activist and a real breath of fresh air who woke up every room she walked into”.

Dr Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, said Ursula had been great fun.

“‘Did you hear me on the radio on Tuesday?’ she messaged me one day almost exactly 10 years ago — in January 2015. ‘No’ I admitted. ‘OMG,’ she messaged back, ‘I was fab. LOL.’ “And so she was. She had been on RTÉ Radio talking about adoption records. Given her own, now well-known, search for her beginnings in life, this was a subject, as well as mother and baby homes, that we often chatted about,” Bishop Colton said.

“She shared her joy as her search bore fruit. When, in time, she discovered information about parents, met her siblings and cousins, we celebrated with her. Given the challenges, disappointments, lows and highs of that search, and then more recently, her ghastly illness, it would be all too easy to remember Ursula as someone who was the object of a pastor’s friendship and care. But it was not like that.

“We met regularly, in passing, after hockey practices and matches at Garryduff. We shared many laughs. There were more formal encounters on the civic circuit, so to speak.

“We did our duty during her year as lady mayoress, but alongside the formality there were many funny asides.”

When Bishop Colton had an accident in 2020 that necessitated a shoulder replacement, that was when their friendship came into its own, and again a year later, in 2021, when he suffered a minor heart attack.

“She ministered to me. I was chastised. ‘Sorry, Paul, you need to put yourself first for a while,’ was her instruction.

“Along with some great laughs, chats ranged from the mischievous, to serious asides about prayer, comparing notes about medication, doctors and hospitals, and even canon law as it impacted on her own quest.

“Then came the news of her own diagnosis,” he said. “Valiantly she came out to join me for a special moment in my own life at Cork City Hall. Along with so many of you, I will miss her and am profoundly grateful for her friendship and her own very caring humanity generously shared even against the backdrop of the very great challenges in her own life.”

Ursula’s husband Terry said she had been incredibly brave during her illness.

“Never flinching from the unpalatable truths, she was equally forthright with the medical staff who she advised, in no uncertain terms, to include her in their team talks. ‘I’m part of the team,’ she reminded them, directing operations from her hospital bed, ‘I’m not on the bench.’

“We loved each other to bits, and we knew it. I was blessed to have her as my wife and mother to our four great children. We miss her so much.”

“For me,” he added, “the best tribute I can make to Ursula is just to look at our four children.”

Ursula will be much missed by a wide and far-reaching circle of friends, but most of all by her husband Terry, to whom she was devoted, her four children, of whom she was so proud, their partners, her granddaughter Bláthnaid, and her sister Sarah and brother Dave.

The world is a poorer place for her passing.