By Sarah Mac Donald - 07 April, 2014
Fionnbar Walsh, father of Donal. Courtesy: Independent.ie
Tuam’s Diocesan Youth Council (DYC) will host a Remembrance Service in Westport next Sunday at 5pm to reflect on life and death.
The gathering will incorporate song, movement, prayer and story.
Speaking about the event, Trish O’Brien, Director of Youth Ministry for the Tuam Archdiocese explained, “This will be an occasion when young people can gather together to be a support for one another.”
She said it would help them build hope that although their friends have gone from their sight, they are still with them and can “continue to influence them to live the very best of life.”
“It will be a chance to hear from others who have experienced the loss a young person, and how they live with this loss. It will also be a time for reflection on life and death,” she said.
The event will involve presentations from two guest speakers.
Martina Goggin’s only child Éamonn (26) died following a car crash in the summer of 2006 in their home village of Spiddal, Co Galway.
As Éamonn had asked, his organs were donated for transplantation.
Martina and her husband Denis, set up a charity called Strange Boat Donor Foundation.
Martina Goggins in the ‘Circle of Life’ garden in Salthill, Co Galway. “A place of commemoration, reflection, inspiration and healing for all.”
The aims of the foundation are to help raise awareness of the importance of this life-giving cause, and to give comfort, consolation and support to all those affected by organ donation and transplantation.
The Foundation is currently involved in the creation of a national public garden titled ‘Circle of Life’, located in a seafront park in Salthill, Galway City.
It will be a place of commemoration, reflection, inspiration and healing for all.
Fionnbar Walsh is a hotel manager in the Maritime Hotel, Bantry.
He lives in Tralee, Co Kerry and will speak about the five-year journey he had to make, and which is continuing, as a result of cancer.
He is a rugby coach, referee and plays a little music.
Donal Walsh with his father Fionnbar, who will be speaking at the Youth Remembrance Event in the Castlecourt Hotel in Westport this Sunday.
Fionnbar enjoys a bit of cycling, and is actually a MAMIL (Middle Aged Man In Lycra) because of a deal he did with his son.
Of late he is better known as ‘Donal’s dad!’
Donal Walsh died of cancer at 16, but not before inspiring a nation by his will to live.
His anti-suicide message especially among teenagers has had a very strong impact across the country.
Fionnbar and his family continue to spread this much needed message.
