United Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough

25.10.2022

Irish Kidney Association’s 37th annual Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving

The Irish Kidney Association is asking the public to tune into RTÉ and actively participate in this years’ virtual Service, including the symbolic Service of Light ceremony. It is hoped that in households the length and breadth of the country, and beyond, a candle will be lit in memory of deceased donors who gave the gift of life.

For many organ donor families this annual service has become an anniversary to remember their loved ones, and for transplant recipients, the opportunity to honour and give thanks for the wonderful ‘gift of life’ they have received. Prior to the global pandemic, the annual event attracted a physical congregation of close to 2,000 people.

For the past three years the service has been pre–recorded with a small gathering of participants due to safety issues around Covid–19, particularly for transplant recipients and other vulnerable people. When the first pre–recorded ‘virtual’ service was held in 2020, a total of 64,000  households nationwide tuned in to watch its first viewing on RTÉ and it was streamed in 24 other countries. Last year after the service broadcast there was an uplift in donor card requests, with 43% increase in average weekly requests.

Twelve families of deceased organ donors participated in the filming of this year’s ‘virtual’ Service, to remember their loved ones who became organ donors following their untimely deaths. Nine grateful transplant recipients who received different deceased donors’ organs (including heart, lung, liver, kidney, and pancreas). They included a five–year–old twin boy who received a kidney transplant this year, a lung transplant grandmother in her late 60s, a 45–year–old mother who has received the gift of life three times in her lifetime, and another mother who is enjoying the successful longevity of a kidney transplant she received 32 years ago.

The service, an occasion for both sadness and joy, includes clergy, humanists, as well as organ transplant recipients, organ donor families, and the medical profession involved in organ donation and transplantation. Music and songare interspersed between poignant symbolic processions and meaningful scripture, reflections and expressions of gratitude, selflessness, and faith in humanity.

The Book of Remembrance, a ‘Roll of Honour’, has been an integral part of the service since its inception with the names of organ and tissue donors carefully inscribed by calligrapher Annette Daly from Glenageary, Co Dublin for the past 37 years. 

A letter from President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, who is patron to the Irish Kidney Association, is read aloud at the Service by Rebecca Maher, from Castleknock, Dublin, the mother of deceased organ donor infant Matilda Quinn who passed away in 2015. In an extract from the President’s message, Rebecca reads, “I join you all in expressing my support and thanksgiving for the great gift of organ transplantation, which has transformed and enriched so many lives – allowing new possibilities and new opportunities for recipients and their loved ones”.