Services remember 14 dead missionaries

IRELAND’S brave missionaries were remembered yesterday at the start of a series of commemorative services for 14 priests, brothers and nuns who died violently abroad in recent times.

The services, organised by the Irish Missionary Union (IMU), took place in nine of the native dioceses of the deceased and continue over the next three Sundays for the remaining group.

The IMU represents 78 religious and missionary bodies. Their records show that of 800 Irish missionaries who died overseas during the last century, 49 died in violent circumstances.