![\"Thelma](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1_McDonalds-Douglas-Thelma-Beltran-1.jpg\")
Thelma Beltran\u200b at McDonald’s Douglas(Image: Gerard McCarthy Photography)<\/p>\nThe hard-working grandmother has ‘no regrets’ about her time in the job<\/p>\n
12:54, 10 Nov 2025Updated 15:00, 10 Nov 2025<\/p>\n
Thelma Beltran\u200b at McDonald’s Douglas(Image: Gerard McCarthy Photography)<\/p>\n
She’s spent almost a quarter century wiping down tables, taking orders and serving Big Macs – but even at 62 years of age, Cork city<\/a> McDonald’s server Thelma Beltran still has ‘no plans’ to retire.<\/strong><\/p>\n The grandmother started at the Douglas<\/a> restaurant as a Crew Member in September 2001. She had been working in Malaysia just months before, but was urged by friends who were already working at the restaurant<\/a> to relocate and join their team. Thelma applied through an agency, then heard nothing “for one or two years,” before she got the job<\/a> offer. Shortly after, she had booked her plane ticket and moved her life around the world for a new career.<\/p>\n She has since been promoted to their team’s Customer Experience Leader. Thelma is a very familiar face for many McDonald’s Douglas regulars, and spends her days moving between front counter and customer care roles as needed. She currently lives locally with other Filipinos who moved abroad to find work, which she feels just like “living at home in the Philippines – except for the weather.”<\/p>\n Thelma is single mum with two daughters – Claire (30), who\u2019s in Japan, and Deborah (28) in Canada – and seven grandkids who live in the Philipines: Mary (10), Andrew (8), LJ (7), Milo (6), Adrian (4), Pablo (4) and Benji (3). She uses her hard-earned funds to visit them twice a year.<\/p>\n Over her many years of serving Cork city<\/a> families, the hard-working grandmother says she learned the most important part of her job is “to keep on smiling.”<\/p>\n Thelma says she is best remembered by customers from the days when the Douglas restaurant would host children’s birthday parties. She said: “People come in and show me videos of parties their kids had in here when they were younger. They don\u2019t forget them – or me. It\u2019s a great feeling, being appreciated for what you do. Even those who have moved away often call in when back in Douglas just to say hello and have something to eat and chat.\u201d<\/p>\n Her job has also taught her that it’s important to go with the flow to keep things running smoothly, and Thelma says she has “no regrets” about her time spent working in Cork.<\/p>\n “If they need me in the front counter service station, I\u2019ll be doing that. I train staff in proper customer care – cleaning, dealing with customers, talking with them. The most important piece of advice I give everyone is to keep on smiling. I\u2019m fully satisfied with what I\u2019m doing now.<\/p>\n “Sometimes when I go shopping in town, I get stopped by regulars, which is fun. They also like to come into the restaurant to tell me all their news. I love it I’ll be doing what I do for the next few years – and I\u2019ll keep on smiling. I love my life; I have no regrets. Douglas will always have a special place in my heart.”<\/p>\n Franchisee Jim Royane, who owns and runs McDonald\u2019s Douglas, said Thelma’s reputation with both staff and the public is hard\u2011earned.<\/p>\n He said: “She’s a brilliant employee and extremely popular with customers. She’s hard-working and always has a smile on her face. We all feel so lucky that Thelma has been with us for the last 24 years.”<\/p>\n McDonald’s Douglas had been closed in recent weeks for a major \u20ac3 million refurb<\/a>, but is now back open with a number of new upgrades. These include a remodelled dining area, an expanded drive-thru and a new kitchen design with a bigger order assembly area to help sort orders faster.<\/p>\n McDonald’s Douglas is one of the busiest in the city, and the drive-thru is the only one in Cork<\/a> that is open 24\/7.<\/p>\n Cork Beo is currently giving away a stylish 2-night Paris escape with H4 Hotel Wyndham Paris Pleyel Resort. You can enter our competition to win a stay for two by filling out your details below. If you can\u2019t see the form, click HERE<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hard-working grandmother has ‘no regrets’ about her time in the job 12:54, 10 Nov 2025Updated 15:00, 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,43516,98496,93295,18,35734,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-173491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cork-city","10":"tag-cork-loves","11":"tag-county-cork","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-food-and-drink","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115526648942957427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Thelma](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_McDonalds-Douglas-Thelma-Beltran.jpg\")
Thelma Beltran\u200b at McDonald\u2019s Douglas(Image: Gerard McCarthy Photography)<\/p>\n