Today is Norway’s National Day (known as Constitution Day) but did you know that a Tipperary woman was one of Norway’s best-known humanitarian activists even though she remained unknown in her native Ireland?
In 2005, Shirley Bottolfsen (nee Murphy) earned the King’s Medal of Merit for her activism having raised over a million euros for various charities in Norway. She was the first non-Norwegian person to be awarded the medal and in the same year, a documentary was made about her life called ‘Santa Comes from Ireland’.
Shirley was born in Roscrea but moved to Bodø, a small town inside the Arctic Circle, in 1956. Her charitable work included working for the Salvation Army, delivering food to people in need, running an annual summer lottery to raise money and most famously, she was known for standing for hours in the Glasshuset (glass house) covered section of the pedestrian precinct in central Bodø with a collection bucket.
When Mary McAleese paid a state visit to Norway back in 2008, Shirley was interviewed by Irish journalists and she quipped that ‘in Norway, I’m about as famous as Bono and Bob Geldof’.
When she passed away in 2021, there was an outpouring of grief from the people of Bodø. A square was named after her - ‘Shirley’s Place’ and a song was written in her memory- The Ballad of Shirley Bottolfsen - which can be viewed below.
Mayor of Bodo, Ida Pinnerød, said of Bottolfsen ‘she had a big heart, and has put Bodø on the national map’.
Sources:
Irish Independent, 15/10/2008, p6
