An antidote to Papal foot in mouth and Stephen Fry
THE last time award-winning writer Deirdre Purcell wrote about a titan of Irish life, at least the subject, Gay Byrne, was alive and well. Their collaboration, The Time Of My Life, was one of the bestselling Irish books of all time. Now Purcell tells the story of another giant of Irish, and international life, the late Father Aengus Finucane who founded the charity Concern, which now has over 3,000 staff helping 12 million of the poorest people around the world.
But Purcell has been hampered by the untimely death of Fr Finucane in 2009 and the fact that his extensive papers and archive – after it was catalogued and collated – was accidentally shredded.
Despite these hurdles, she has produced a highly readable, accessible, fair and thought-provoking biography of the man.
At a time when Pope Francis keeps putting his foot in it – criticising Catholics with large families for ‘breeding like rabbits’ and, effectively, advocating domestic corporal punishment for difficult children – and the world’s wittiest actor, Stephen Fry, rocked many believers to the core with his excoriating critique of God and His followers, Fr Finucane’s story is uplifting.
In light of Fry’s indictment of God and all His works, it was fascinating to read a Fr Finucane quote that dominates this biography.
Fr Finucane reserves his judgment not on God but on humans. He said: ‘We have a strong inclination to do evil, and you have to fight like hell to do any good.’
Born in Limerick in 1932, Finucane was a doer. He got involved in penny dinners and found his vocation through the Holy Ghost Fathers, which he joined in 1959.
In the late Sixties he led a campaign to get food to the breakaway state of Biafra via makeshift airstrips despite Nigeria’s efforts to thwart the operation by bombing the airstrips nightly.
Finucane actually waited in the bush every night for the bombs to fall and then led locals with tons of gravel to fill the runway craters.
Finucane, along with his brother Jack, was soon leading Concern for Africa, which through hard work and a trusted reputation expanded into one of the world’s largest aid charities.
It speaks volumes for the man’s charisma, as Purcell points out, that he attracted great humanitarians such as David Begg, Tom Arnold and latterly Dominic MacSorley, to lead the organisation.
It was Finucane who persuaded President Mary Robinson to visit Somalia in 1992 where she gave an emotional press conference that shook viewers.
Today Concern Worldwide operates in 25 countries and Fr Finucane’s legacy lives on through this book. Purcell finishes with his wise words: ‘Do as much as you can, as well as you can, for as many as you can, for as long as you can.’
Aengus Finucane: In The Heart Of Concern is published by New Island and priced at €24.99.
THE good news about the revelation that Australia will go straight to the final of the Eurovision song contest – which celebrates its 60th anniversary in Vienna on May 23 – is it may actually mean Ireland will be in with a chance of winning again. It’s nearly 20 years since Ireland’s last victory, when Eimear Quinn, pictured, took the trophy home. Given that in the past decade it seems half of Ireland has emigrated to Australia, presumably they will all have the opportunity to vote for the Irish entry.
MOST people who see the street name Blood Stoney Road near the Bord Gáis Theatre in Dublin’s docklands think the name is drawn from a former leper colony on the site. In fact, it’s named after Bindon Blood Stoney, the port engineer who also designed the diving bell that now rests on the Liffey quayside at the end of the road. The bell is soon to be restored as a visitor attraction. Harry Crosbie’s docklands are fast becoming the capital’s most exciting quarter.