Memorial service for ‘hero’ human rights activist

HUNDREDS of people are expected to turn out to pay their final respects to human rights activist Pat Rice at a memorial service in Co Cork next weekend.

Dr Rice, a former priest from Fermoy, suffered a fatal heart attack last month after devoting 40 years of his life campaigning for human rights in Latin America.

He was regarded as a hero by many in his adopted country of Argentina, where he was credited with saving hundreds of victims of the country’s former brutal regime, in which nearly 30,000 “disappeared” from 1976 to 1983.