CLAIRE O'CONNELL A NEW LIFEBeing made redundant gave Orla Sheehan the chance to concentrate on her charity work
WHAT DO you do if you want Westlife to donate a song to your new charity CD? You call directory inquiries from your kitchen and get the number for their manager's office.
That's what Orla Sheehan did to fundraise for her charity, Tuesday's Child, which she set up when she was suddenly made redundant from a high-flying post in pharmacy education.
"I got the number of Louis Walsh's office in Dublin and spoke to his PA, and a week later they said yes and that they would be donating a song," recalls Belfast-born Sheehan, laughing.
Courting international music stars wasn't on her career trajectory when she studied pharmacy in London and Belfast. She worked with premature babies before taking up a post in medicines information at St James's Hospital in Dublin.
From there she became director in 2003 of the Irish Centre for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education, which saw her lecturing around the State, developing professional development courses for community pharmacists.
As director she had a Midas touch and within three years, course uptake had more than tripled and the centre was being hailed as a leading light in Europe. But it wasn't all rosy, according to Sheehan.
"I found the whole public sector and the politics that went with it incredibly stressful and unneccessary."
In May 2006 a friend asked her to go on a trip to Medjugorje, and Sheehan jumped at the chance of a break. While there she met an American social worker who brought her to see the "real Bosnia" in Mostar, which had been on the front line of the Bosnian-Serbian war. What Sheehan saw had a huge effect on her.
"It was just the poverty and the lack of hope, the whole country was caught in a trans-generational post-traumatic stress disorder from the fallout of the war, trying to get the country back on its feet and the children were the most vulnerable.
"There were no services for children with disabilities, no care in the community, no social services and huge unemployment and they were caught in a vicious circle."
Witnessing their situation first hand put her own woes into perspective, she says. "When I went out there I was incredibly stressed at work. But when I saw all these children I thought who am I to feel sorry for myself. It put things in perspective and I came away feeling quite strongly that I wanted to do more to help the kids."
When she got back to Dublin, Sheehan started to send money and other items over to the children in Bosnia, but work took over again. The centre was extraordinarily successful and Sheehan was kept busy.
Then that June she got a letter that pulled the rug out from under her. The HSE was axing her post and making her redundant. "It came as quite a shock," says Sheehan. "Education and quality were flying, and after a performance like that I would have been expecting a bonus, not a redundancy."
So instead of continuing her success, she had to pack up and leave within a few weeks, which she regrets. "I met so many committed pharmacists who work very hard for the good of their patients. And I never got to say goodbye or tell them how good they were," she says, still angry at the HSE's action.
"There seems to be no accountability in their decision-making process. What they did to me was ruthless and I don't think I will ever get over it."
She returned to her native Belfast to take stock, and realised this could be an opportunity to do more charity work. So she set up Tuesday's Child to help children in need around the world, tying in strongly with the United Nation's charter on human rights for children.
To raise funds she decided to put together a charity album, and recruited some big names to donate tracks. "I started making contacts," she says. "Networking was one of the skills that my career had given me, and I just translated those skills without realising it."
Sheehan cast out the net and brought some household names on board, including Ronan Keating, Westlife, Snow Patrol, Mary Black, Kieran Goss and Enda Walsh from The 4 of Us, who donated the use of his recording studio.
And sometimes the personal touch worked wonders: "I just went up to Liam Ó Maonlaí after a gig and he thought it was a fantastic idea," she says. "He gave us a song, and he was performing with Kíla so I asked them to write a song for us too."
She also found a wealth of generosity in distributors, legal and PR staff, who donated their services to the cause. "Normally, when you make an album there are serious overheads," she says. "But this is the most cost-effective album ever made. I got everything free, so more goes to kids."
All proceeds from the double CD will help fund health, education and fun-focused initiatives for children in various parts of the world, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil and Gaza.
Sheehan notes that her late parents were charitable people, so her move was probably "in the blood". But she also believes that as well as supporting children, fundraising for the charity has helped her work through being made redundant from her job in pharmacy. "I don't practise anymore, but making the album helped, and it was the stretch I needed," she says.
• Tuesday's Child is on sale in music outlets around the State, and for download through the charity's website, www.tuesdayschild.ie