Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Bishop Eamon Casey.
Date: Mon 13th Mar, 2017 | 19:22
“I have heard with sadness of the passing of Eamon Casey, former Bishop of Galway and Kerry.
There will be many who will remember his work on homelessness and housing with the Irish emigrant community in Britain.
As Chairman of Trócaire, he encouraged the organisation to become a leading NGO campaigning for justice as well as responding to humanitarian distress and poverty in the developing world.
After his attendance at the funeral of Bishop Romero who was assassinated in El Salvador, Irish awareness of the sources of conflict in Central and South America was significantly increased.
While serving as mayor of Galway I was asked by Bishop Casey to visit, with other parliamentarians, El Salvador and to speak to the religious and others who were reporting on human rights and the killings that were taking place.
Other aspects of his life were the source of pain to others, for which Bishop Casey has apologised and expressed his deep regret, and he himself had the experience of pain visited on him in later life.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.”