John Timothy Flaherty (born October 21, 1967) is a television baseball broadcaster and a retired Major League Baseball player. Flaherty was a catcher, and last played in the major leagues for the New York Yankees.
Flaherty grew up in West Nyack, New York and graduated in 1985 from Saint Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, New Jersey. He went to grammar school at St. Anthony School in Nanuet, New York. He attended George Washington University, graduating in 1988, and he batted and threw right-handed.
Drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 1988, he moved through the farm system and broke through with the Sox in 1992. He also played for the Red Sox in 1993, and in 1994 he was traded to the Detroit Tigers for Rich Rowland. In 1996, Flaherty had a 27-game hitting streak. This ranks as the third-longest hitting streak of all time by a catcher, behind only Sandy Alomar, Jr.'s 30-game streak and Benito Santiago's 34-game streak.
In 1996, the Tigers traded Flaherty to the San Diego Padres, along with Chris Gomez, for Brad Ausmus, Andujar Cedeno, and a minor leaguer. In 1997, the Padres traded Flaherty to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Andy Sheets and Brian Boehringer. He played as the Devil Rays' everyday catcher through the 2002 season. As a member of the Devil Rays, he earned notoriety for breaking up a Pedro Martínez no-hitter in the ninth inning.
In 1997, the BBC soap opera EastEnders broadcast three singular transmissions that were filmed on location in Dublin, Ireland. The episodes involved the Fowler and Beale family travelling from London to Ireland to meet their long-lost relatives. They were badly received by viewers and heavily criticised in the media. The BBC was inundated with complaints from angry viewers from Ireland for negative stereotyping, portraying Irish people as "dirty, rude, and drunk". Complaints were made by the Irish Embassy and there were fears that the episodes would have a negative effect on the Irish tourist trade. The BBC was forced to issue an apology for causing offence.
In 1997, EastEnders aired a storyline in which the character Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) discovers that she has a long-lost sister, Maggie Flaherty (Olivia Shanley). In the storyline, Pauline's deceased mother Lou had given Maggie up for adoption shortly after her birth, as she was born out of wedlock. Maggie is first said to be the result of an illicit affair Lou had with an Irishman 60 years prior, but although Maggie is initially thought to be Pauline's half sister, it later transpires that they share the same father too; Maggie was only the result of pre-marital sex between Lou and her husband-to-be, Albert Beale.