Tag Archives: Trocaire

Trócaire is calling on supporters in Clare to return donations from their Trócaire boxes, warning that a decline in donations to its Lenten Appeal would put many of its life-saving programmes at risk. The charity’s biggest fundraising campaign, which finishes this weekend (Easter Sunday), has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with many supporters unable to access their Trócaire boxes through the usual channels due to ongoing restrictions. Trócaire CEO Caoimhe de Barra said: “Unless our generous supporters in Clare return their boxes or donate online this year, we won’t be able to provide life-saving support to almost 3 million people who rely on our work overseas each year.” “We are asking our supporters in Clare to ‘make your Trócaire box count’. Please count or estimate what is in your box and donate the equivalent amount online, over the phone or via post. Many parishes have their own local arrangements in place for collecting Trócaire boxes, so people can also …

THIS year’s Fleadh Nua has struck a right note with plans to move online while also raising vital funds for charity. Like many other events around the county, this year’s Fleadh Nua in Ennis has been cancelled as a result of Covid-19. However in a bid not to disappoint the thousands of regular Fleadh goers from around the country and overseas, organisers of are putting together an online programme of traditional music, song and dance and seeking to raise much needed funds for Trocaire in the process. “When people heard that this year’s Fleadh wouldn’t be going ahead we received many messages from those who attend the event every year saying how sad they were not to be able to come to Ennis for Fleadh Nua 2020, especially since this year’s event had been scheduled for the June Bank Holiday weekend,” said Frank Whelan, Cathaoirleach of Fleadh Nua. To ensure fans of the festival will not miss out on the …

The people of Clare, through Trócaire, supported 260 families around the world with Christmas gifts last year. People in the county spent almost €8,000 on Trócaire gifts last year, which supported families with livestock, school books, water and healthcare in some of the poorest and most isolated places on earth. The charity said that people from across the country continue to show incredible generosity at Christmas. Since its beginning Trócaire’s gifts campaign has sold nearly 900,000 gifts. The campaign has raised over €37 million in total for Trócaire’s work to eradicate poverty in more than 20 countries in the developing world. Kilmaley man Eamonn Meehan, executive director of Trócaire, said, “I have seen the difference these gifts make on the ground. It is no exaggeration to say that they are having an immediate, practical impact on families throughout the developing world. For example, millions of people in east Africa are still fighting for survival in the face of drought and …

Special collections will take place at all masses across County Clare at the weekend, as part of a national appeal to help people caught up in the current food crisis in east Africa. Trócaire executive director Éamonn Meehan, from Kilmaley, has urged people to get behind the appeal and support the agency’s efforts to save lives in the affected areas. 25 million people in east Africa are facing starvation in the coming months and millions could die unless they receive immediate assistance. Severe drought, driven by climate change, is currently affecting Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia and this has resulted in failed harvests and the widespread death of livestock. The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference has called for a national church collection to support Trócaire’s work in the region. “With the failure of successive rains and a prolonged drought having taken hold of the region, just surviving has now become the main challenge facing the people of east Africa,” Éamons …

The funeral mass for Bishop Eamonn Casey took place in the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Haven and St Nicholas this afternoon (Thursday). The attendance included President Michael D Higgins, members of Galway City and County Councils, representatives of Trocáire and other organisations he lead, as well as people from all walks of society. The principal celebrant was the Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby, former chairman of Trocáire, while the preacher was Bishop of Achonry Brendan Kelly, a former priest of the Diocese of Galway. Also at the altar were bishops and priests from dioceses across the country and the UK, where he ministered. In his homily, Bishop Kirby said, “Eamonn Casey, whose mortal remains are with us today in this cathedral, had a long life as priest and bishop. He did much good. As a young priest with the Emigrant Mission in London, he enabled many young couples to acquire their first home, to rise out of tenements …

Kilmaley native, Eamonn Meehan from Trocaire is calling on people to remember the extraordinary mothers across the developing world this Mother’s Day. This weekend people across Ireland will celebrate the mothers in their families and honour the women in their lives. The ‘Irish Mammy’ is a blessing to be cherished, but having worked and lived in the developing world I always also remember the ‘Global Mammies’ I have met who, despite struggling against unimaginable poverty and injustice, are making sure their children have a brighter future. Mothers across the developing world are struggling to feed their children and earn enough money to send them to school. The sacrifices mothers and families are making is extraordinary and highlights their strength and determination. This week Trocaire is celebrating the women the organisation has been able to support thanks to donations from county Clare and across Ireland particularly during the Lenten campaign. The Trocaire Box is our biggest fundraising campaign and provides the …

Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Pat Breen is this Tuesday beginning a three-day humanitarian visit with Trocaire to Haiti. Deputy Breen’s itinerary includes a visit to the Institute of Technology and Development in Gressier, a Trocaire partner involved in post-earthquake housing projects. While there he will officially hand over the keys of the new housing units to the beneficiary families of this Trocaire supported inaugural housing project. Deputy Breen will also visit the Canaan Camp for Internally Displaced persons to see the plight of people still living in tent cities, travel to the Cluny Sister school to see the situation of education in Haiti and support from Irish Cluny sisters for reconstruction work of schools in Haiti and meet with NGOs, EU and UN Representatives and Members of the Haitian Bishops Conference for an overview of the current post earth quake recovery and development efforts. Before departure, Deputy Breen said, “The 2010 earthquake had a …

KILMALEY man Eamonn Meehan, executive director of Trocaire, met with Pope Francis in Rome last month during a meeting of overseas development agencies about the crisis in Syria. “We have a huge moral authority and we should use it and not accept or let anyone else accept that this war be left to just play itself out,” Eamonn Meehan said at the meeting. Pope Francis agreed with him saying that many refugees in Syria were suffering. “We must accept with great sorrow that the Syrian crisis has not been resolved, but instead continues, and there is the risk of growing accustomed to it and of forgetting the victims claimed on a daily basis, the unspeakable suffering, the thousands of refugees, which include the elderly and children, who suffer and at times die of hunger and of diseases causes by the conditions of war,” Pope Francis said. Trócaire had been supporting local partners in the region since March 2012. Donations from …