Remembering the Fallen - Dedication of Mayo Peace Park

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Remembering the Fallen - Dedication of Mayo Peace Park

By Fr Brendan Hoban SSC

Fr Brendan Hoban

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fr Brendan reads an invocation.

I was asked to bless the Mayo Peace Park on 12 September 2009. The Park was opened in 2008, but some extra names had been added, and seven seats were to be dedicated in 2009. As a Castlebar man and a Columban missionary, I was happy to be asked.

The main speaker at the Peace Park ceremony was Sir Patrick Duffy, who was an MP, Navy Minister in the British Government, and who later worked in NATO. He paid tribute to his parents who came from Aghamore, where he went to recover from injuries received in the Second World War. He left NATO and retired from the House of Commons in 1993.

Memorial Seat
The seat dedicated to
Fr John Heneghan.

For the blessing and dedication, the Church of Ireland was represented by Deacon Andrea Wills who prayed the dedication of the seven seats that day. One of the seats was dedicated to Fr John Heneghan from Louisburgh, one of the early Columbans who was tortured and shot by the Japanese in Manila, in 1945. Incidentally, Fr Heneghan was the first editor of The Far East. Three Columbans Frs Des Quinn, Gerry French and I, were happy to join some of his relatives for the occasion.

I am particularly happy that Mayo’s Peace Park was named in this way rather than being called a ‘war memorial’. This title reminds us of the constant need for peace-makers. Peace does not happen without sterling efforts, and there can be no peace without justice.

The Mayo Peace Park Committtee was set up some years ago to organise a memorial to all those who had given their lives for others. The 2009 event was organised by this group and by the Mayo Emigrant Liaison Committee, as the soldiers who had served with various armed forces had also been emigrants who had crossed the barriers of various other cultures. At a dinner on the previous night, presentations were made to some of those who had worked so hard for the Irish Emigrants in England. The Columbans got special mention as they and the Conference of Irish Bishops had begun the Irish Chaplaincy work. We Columbans gratefully accepted this acknowledgment of our part in this important missionary task over many years.

[Far East Magazine]