Tributes paid to Concern founder Fr Jack Finucane
Selfless humanitarian dies suddenly at 80
TRIBUTES have been paid to one of Ireland’s leading humanitarians, Concern director Father Jack Finucane, who has died aged 80.
Hailed by U2 frontman and antipoverty campaigner Bono as a major influence, the Limerick priest’s aid work in the late Sixties during the Nigerian civil war led to the founding of global charity Concern Worldwide.
Along with his late brother Fr Aengus, Fr Finucane sent tonnes of food to the famine-stricken Biafra region after he visited refugee camps where, by 1968, 6,000 children were dying each week due to starvation as a result of the conflict between the Nigerian government and rebel Biafran forces. His Africa Concern charity, which he set up to manage the food convoys, was the forerunner to Concern Worldwide.
Fr Finucane, who also advised Live Aid founder Bob Geldof during the Ethiopian famine in the mid-Eighties, remained a director of Concern up until his sudden death on Wednesday afternoon at a retreat in south county Dublin.
Last night, President Michael D Higgins spoke of his sadness on hearing of Fr Finucane’s death.
‘Jack, and his late brother Fr Aengus Finucane were inspirational figures among the large group of people in Ireland who value and embody the importance of the humanitarian spirit.’ Mr Higgins said.
‘Theirs was a distinctive voice and their life’s work leaves a real, positive, and enduring legacy for millions of people across the globe, as well as having contributed to Ireland’s reputation abroad in the best possible sense.’
Born in Limerick in 1937 and ordained in 1963, Fr Finucane was sent to Nigeria with the Holy Ghost Fathers and was at the heart of the distribution of aid flown into Biafra by Concern and other relief organisations.
Following the surrender of Biafra, he was arrested by the Nigerian authorities and spent several weeks in prison before being deported.
In 1973, he was posted to Bangladesh, a country he loved and returned to often. But it was the 1984 famine in Ethiopia where Fr Finucane’s knowledge of the country, his considerable diplomatic skills enabled Concern to mount a massive response to the crisis.
By the time that famine received worldwide attention, Concern had a team of 46 expatriates and 890 national staff on the ground.
Fr Finucane formally retired in 2002 but never stopped working for Concern
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charlie Flanagan also paid tribute to Fr Finucane and the priest’s ‘inspirational’ work fighting famine and poverty around the world. Mr Flanagan said: ‘His example will continue to inspire all those who champion the cause of global development.’
Concern Worldwide chief executive Dominic MacSorley said Fr Finucane was an ‘unassuming leader’.
Mr MacSorley added: ‘What Jack has achieved may never be fully quantified but he has saved and improved the lives of millions of people caught up in crisis and poverty.’
Fr Finucane’s funeral Mass takes on Monday, at 11.30am in Kimmage Church.
‘Saved millions of lives’