Tens of thousands of people are expected to tune in to the Irish Kidney Association's 38th annual Remembrance and Thanksgiving Service, which will be broadcast this Sunday, November 5th at 11am on RTÉ One and RTÉ Radio One Extra.
Many people from across Offaly took part in a multi-faith recorded service.
A ceremony to honour organ donors and celebrate the gift of life to others took place last month at Christ the King Cathedral in Mullingar. For many organ donor families, the unique ceremony marks a day of remembrance in memory of their loved ones, and for transplant recipients, an opportunity to honour and give thanks for the incredible 'gift of life' they have received. This year's recorded ceremony marked a return to an in-person gathering after three consecutive years of televised virtual events due to COVID-19. Last year's broadcast of the ceremony attracted more than 41,000 viewers from over 20 countries around the world, including Ireland, the UK, Spain, the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland and Croatia.
This year's service brought more than 1,300 believers of all faiths, including humanists, to Mullingar Cathedral to celebrate the gift of life. The special service featured music and song from the Mullingar Choir and Julianne piper Aoife Nally, interspersed between a moving symbolic procession and meaningful scripture, as well as reflections and expressions of gratitude, selflessness and faith in humanity. After the service, families of organ donors saw the names of their deceased loved ones inscribed in the Book of Remembrance, a register of honour for organ donors.
Taking part in the symbolic procession and reading roles were the brave families of deceased organ donors, living kidney and liver donors, grateful recipients of heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas transplants, and the mothers of multi-organ transplant recipients. Also in attendance were members of the wider organ donation and transplant community, including medical, surgical and nursing staff. Among those in attendance were Organ Donation Transplant Ireland (ODTI) Clinical Lead Dr Catherine Motherway and Organ Donation Coordinator Jean O'Reilly (ODTI), Transplant Surgeon Gordon Smith (Beaumont Hospital), Transplant Coordinators Laura Austin and Andrea Fitzmaurice (Beaumont Hospital), and Carmela Malapit, a Filipina dialysis nurse at Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore and wife of a kidney transplant recipient.
On December 19th 1963 (60 years ago), two sisters of Ted Tobin, the young man from Cullumlin, Dublin, who made history as the first person to undergo an organ transplant in Ireland, took part in a donation procession. The late man's sister, Sylvia O'Donovan, of Abbeyleaks, Co. Laois, carried a photograph of her brother, who was a talented musician, while sister Jean Keogh, of Enfield, Co. Meath, brought to the altar one of her brother's treasured music books.
During the opening procession, Army Sergeant Lavinia Connell from Athlone, whose late brother John was an organ donor, carried the cross to the altar, followed by Leanne Walsh from Tullamore, whose sister Michelle Kavanagh became an organ donor in 2019.
Transplant Team Ireland sports teams led a symbolic lighting ceremony, lighting candles for the congregation in honour of the blood donors. Nine-year-old Sam Kinahan, from Baldoyle in Dublin, and his father Ivan, a kidney donor, brought to the altar the medals they each won at this summer's UK Transplant Games.
Helen Nugent, from Sutton, Dublin, has attended the service every year since her brother Brendan Tyrrell's organs were donated in 1987, while Gerald and Margaret Reidy, from Loughoil West, Limerick, have been attending the service since their daughter Miriam died in 1997.
Parents of organ donors who took on readings and processional roles at the funeral included Kate Hines from Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, who remembers her son Jonathan, who passed away in 2012; Kevin Fitzpatrick from Collinstown, Co Westmeath, who lost his beloved son Darren in 2018; Ellis Carlin from Croghan, Co Donegal, who lost his son Tony in 2019; Michael Kerrigan from Muff, Co Donegal, who lost his son Cormac earlier this year; and Eddie Barnes from Macroom, Co Cork, who lost his baby son Harvey in a car accident 17 years ago.
Sisters Lauren and Niamh Davies, from Athy, Co Kildare, became organ donors after their mother Ashling died from a fatal brain haemorrhage in 2017, and carried a large donor card to the altar.
Transplant patients who have played a role in the service include liver transplant recipient Declan Gorman, from Mullingar, and Frances Little, also from Mullingar, who was on dialysis for 16 years before undergoing life-changing transplant surgery last year. A prayer of thanks to living donors was read by kidney transplant recipient and former County Westmeath footballer John Egan, from Athlone, whose father-in-law donated his kidney to him. John has since married and become a father. A prayer was also read by Sinead Lowndes, from Dublin 15, who received a multiple organ transplant in the UK in 2019, including a liver, pancreas, part of the intestine and colon, and an abdominal wall transplant.
Edel O'Brien Farrell, a well-known Mullingar businesswoman, has been the recipient of two living donor kidney transplants. Edel's mother, Moira O'Brien, donated a kidney to her as a child 45 years ago. The transplant eventually failed after 40 years and Edel's daughter, Laura Farrell, donated a kidney to her mother last year. Each of the three generations brought a basket of forget-me-nots, the Irish Kidney Society's coat of arms and symbol of transplantation, to the altar.
Members of the Irish transplant team who took part in the candle lighting ceremony included transplant footballer John Brennan from Tarranttown, County Louth, who received a heart transplant, Dubliner Jack Bentley from Lusk, who received a double lung transplant, and Jason Flynn from Ballyfermot, who received a liver transplant. Other transplant athletes who participated in the World Transplant Games and European Transplant Games who took part in the candle lighting ceremony were eight kidney transplant recipients: O'Daghan Cullen from Loughduff, County Cavan, who received a kidney/pancreas transplant; Michelle Reinhardt-McCabe from Smithborough, County Monaghan, who received a kidney transplant; Sheila Gregan from Nenagh, County Tipperary; Theresa Smith from Dunmore/Williamstown, County Galway; Finian Farrell from Mullingar, County Westmeath; and Patrick O'Sullivan from Mallow, County Cork. Dubliners team captain Harry Ward (Baldoyle), Ron Grainger (Castleknock) and John Moran (Glasnevin).
The service was narrated by Eddie Flood, Honorary National President of the Irish Kidney Association and kidney transplant recipient from Killcan, Co. Westmeath. Flood thanked everyone who helped make the service happen, and thanked the Catholic Bishop of Meath, Archbishop Thomas Deenihan and Archbishop Phil Gaffney, for hosting the service at the Cathedral, and the Revd Barry White, the chief celebrant. Flood also thanked Fr Stan Deegan, priest of the local Killcan parish, Fr Alastair Graham, priest of the Church of Ireland, Mario Martins, missionary for Youth for Christ Ireland, and Louise Birchall, who represented the Irish Humane Society.
This unique service will be the first to be held in the Midlands since its inception and only the second time to be held outside Dublin. This year's service marks the return to an in-person gathering after three consecutive years of being a televised virtual event due to the impact of COVID-19.
A confidential database of organ donor families is kept by Organ Donation Transplant Ireland.
The Irish Kidney Society's Liturgy Committee, involved in the organisation and planning of the event, consisted of Cathriona Charles (Leitrim), National Chair Eddie Flood (Westmeath), Joan Gavan (Tipperary), Ashling Hand (Dublin), Gwen O'Donoghue (Offaly) and Olive Cummins (Dublin).After the service refreshments were provided in Colais Muire (CBS).
People who wish to support organ donation are encouraged to share their wishes with their family and to remember their decision by carrying an organ donor card, having code 115 on their driving licence or installing the 'Digital Organ Donor Card' app on their smartphone. Organ donor cards can be requested by visiting the IKA website at www.ika.ie/get-a-donor-card, calling the Irish Kidney Association on 01 6205306 or by free texting the word DONOR to 50050.
