Clare O'Flaherty: Clare O'Flaherty, who has died after a long and debilitating illness, had won a reputation as an outstanding member of the Irish diplomatic service in a career spanning 30 years and varied posts.
But soon after her appointment in 2002 as ambassador to Finland, she was stricken by motor neurone disease and instead of representing Ireland in Helsinki she spent the next two years fighting her illness and showing great courage as it gradually deprived her of speech and mobility.
Those of her wide circle of friends and colleagues who visited her in the final stages were deeply impressed by her fortitude and refusal to complain about her fate. The clergy and neighbours in her beloved Ranelagh were inspired by her strong faith and regular attendance in her parish church while confined to a wheelchair. She learned how to communicate through her laptop computer.
Clare was born in Athy on August 8th, 1947, to Carmel and James O'Flaherty. She was educated at St Mary's Convent School and University College Dublin, where she graduated with an honours degree in history. Although Ireland was not yet a member of the EEC, she took the unusual step of studying for a year in the European College in Bruges and then working for a period in the EEC Commission in Brussels as a stagiaire or trainee official.
After a period teaching in the Regional College in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, she entered the Department of Foreign Affairs in October 1972, as a third secretary in the Political Division. With Ireland's entry into the EEC several months later, this was a period of rapid expansion, and she was posted to the embassy in Rome within a year.
Rome and Italy were to be a huge influence in her life. She fell in love with Italy and its culture. She became a lifelong admirer of Dante and loved to discuss and quote from his Divine Comedy. In 1986, after postings in Paris and back at headquarters, she took a career break and spent almost two years in Florence deepening her appreciation of Italian culture.
In 1990 she was appointed to Ireland's Permanent Mission to United Nations organisations in Geneva. Four years later she was seconded from the Department to the EU Council of Ministers secretariat in Brussels to work in the area of the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
In 1995 she was promoted to counsellor and returned to Dublin to the political division. She later worked in the protocol and Anglo-Irish divisions before being appointed to Washington in August 2000.
This was a new and important post in the Washington Embassy where she would concentrate on diplomatic and security relations between the US and the EU. Hitherto this aspect of the embassy's work had not received full attention as the priority had naturally been US-Irish relations involving extensive lobbying on Capitol Hill about Northern Ireland and other matters of immediate Irish interest.
In her new post, Clare had to deepen the embassy's contacts with members of Congress and establish new ones with US agencies dealing with security in a European context such as the National Security Council and key figures in the State Department. This was in the context of Ireland's successful lobbying to become a member of the UN Security Council.
In February 2002 her successful work in Washington was rewarded when the Government approved her nomination as Ambassador to Finland. But soon afterwards the symptoms of her fatal illness began to show themselves. As it progressed and affected her speech, it was clear that her diplomatic career was over.
This was a cruel blow for a woman attaining the highest reaches of her profession who had won the appreciation of her colleagues and superiors for her intellectual and personal qualities, qualities she never flaunted. A woman of "style and substance" was how the secretary general of the Department, Dermot Gallagher, described her at the funeral Mass.
She is survived by her parents, Carmel and James O'Flaherty; her sister, Colette, and brothers, Paschal, Gerard and Seamus.
Clare O'Flaherty: born August 8th, 1947; died September 11th, 2004