Before there was Mother Teresa of Calcutta, there was Mother Margaret of New Orleans.
Margaret Haughery, also known as the ‘Angel of the Delta,’ ‘Mother of Orphans,’ or the ‘Celebrated Margaret,’ dedicated her adult life to tending to the poor and hungry of Louisiana, with a particular focus on the needs of orphans.
Born Margaret Gaffney into poverty in Tully, Co Leitrim, in 1813, her parents relocated with their three youngest children to the New World in 1818 after a succession of bad summers left their land even harder to farm than before…