To whom it Concerns

The article below appears in the March edition of 'Reality', a magazine published by the Irish Redemptorists.

Jack Finucane, right, with
two colleagues in New York.

Michael Commane
Fr Jack Finucane was to present President Michael D Higgins with the annual Aengus Finucane Humanitarian award on December 10 but with the death of Nelson Mandela the event had to be postponed as President and Mrs Higgins were in South Africa attending the State Memorial Service for the dead civil rights leader. The award ceremony was rescheduled for January 17. This time Jack was on cue to make the presentation.

Aengus Finucane, who died in 2009, was Jack’s brother and was from 1981 to 1997 at the helm of Concern. Both men spent most of their lives working for Concern. They played pivotal roles in developing what is today Ireland’s largest development aid agency.

Jack joined the Spiritans, then known as the Holy Ghost Fathers, in 1955 and was ordained a priest in 1963. At 26 he was sent to Nigeria.

Within four years of going to Nigeria he was engulfed in the fallout from the Biafra war and the famine that resulted from the conflict. Concern was founded in 1968 in response to the disastrous famine and Jack was at the centre of the distribution of the relief goods flown into Biafra by Concern and other relief organisations.

At 30 Jack was appointed Caritas co-ordinator in Nigeria during the Biafra war. He does admit that he got a great grounding in organisational skills from the late Fr Aidan Lehane, who was dean in Rockwell College. “Yes, I suppose they saw me as practical and well-organised.

“I can still recall the incredible generosity of the Irish. People from every county in Ireland came to our help. It really was amazing,” he recalls.

In 1973 he joined Concern and worked in Bangladesh with the organisation. Jack transferred to Ethiopia in 1974, a short time before the silent famine of that year. Jack’s knowledge of the country, his considerable diplomatic skills and his relationship with the Ethiopian authorities greatly assisted Concern being able to mount a significant and immediate response to the crisis of that time. Jack went back to Bangladesh in 1977.

Jack was called back to Ethiopia in 1984 to head up the Concern work to deal with a new famine. By the time Ethiopia received worldwide attention Concern had a team of 46 expatriates and 890 national staff in the field. As a natural team leader Jack mobilised, maximised and valued the contribution of every member of his team. Jack had direct access to the Commissioner for Relief and Rehabilitation, Major Dawit, who gave him permission to bring into the country anything that would help in relieving the famine conditions.

In 1985, after the famine, the Government of Ethiopia took a controversial decision to resettle 650,000 people from the north of the country to the south west. In the face of international opposition thousands of people were transferred.

Despite the controversy Jack was certain of the need to work in the resettlement areas, because it was consistent with Concern’s mission work in assisting the poorest of the poor. Ultimately, Concern played a positive role in influencing the government to improve the conditions of the settlers and, later, to end the resettlement programme.

“Deirdre Purcell visited Ethiopia during the famine in 1984. She was working for the Sunday Tribune and was one of a number of journalists who came out on a Guinness Peat Aviation plane, which was going on to Nigeria. Deirdre and Pat Langan, who was a photographer with The Irish Times, wrote a book on the famine, which made £30,000 for Concern’s work in Ethiopia. It was a lot of money at the time.

As a result of Deirdre’s links with Concern, the agency has asked her if she would be interested in writing the story of Aengus. She kindly agreed. She is now almost finished interviewing people and started writing in January. The plan is to launch the book in September,” Jack explains.

Jack returned to Dublin in 1990 where he was Concern’s Regional Director for a number of countries in Africa.

In 1994 he witnessed over one million people fleeing from Rwanda into Goma, in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and four years later he saw the same population stream across the border to return home.

Although officially retired from Concern Jack is on the board of Concern USA.

“Aengus set up the New York Concern office in 1993 and he was there for 10 years after his retirement here. And really it was a great fit for him as he would talk for Ireland.

“Today Tom Moran is Concern’s US Chairperson. Tom is CEO of Mutual America and has simply fallen in love with Concern and the work it does. “Every year Concern holds a major fundraising dinner in New York. CEOs of large corporations buy tables. If they can’t make it on the night they then allow Concern to sell on the table. Last year $1.6 million was committed for the annual Concern dinner.

“Right now Concern is breaking into the corporate sector in the US and this is a great advance for the agency. The Concern annual golf outing in Chicago raises $150,000,” Jack explains.
Jack has been on the US board for three years and attends three meetings a year, two in New York and one in the Windy City.

Before we finish our chat he talks about his family and his childhood, growing up in Limerick. There were six children in the family and two are deceased. His sister Patsy is a Mercy Sister, who has done pioneering work in caring for the aged. “She is the brightest of us,” he insists.

Over in the corner of the room is a silver statue of a horse. He sees me looking at it and explains that JP McManus invited Aengus and him to a celebration he was having in Limerick for his CBS scholarship fund and JP presented both Aengus and Jack with a horse each.

In 2005 Aengus and Jack received the Freedom of Limerick, something about which he is rightly proud.
Jack, the Spiritan priest, the Limerick man, the man who has spent his life working for Concern, embodies all that is noble and good in the idea of the worker priest. He readily admits that his religious superiors gave him the space he needed to get on with the job.

An impressive man, who has been on the ground to support the poorest of the poor.