How Fr Pat survived Argentina’s purge

Forty years ago this month, a Cork priest was kidnapped and tortured after the coup of 1976 in the South American country. Thousands of leftwing sympathisers would be ‘disappeared’ in the years ahead, but I helped negotiate my friend’s release, says Justin Harman

PATRICK Rice was a priest and human rights worker from Fermoy, Co Cork, who lived in Latin America from 1970 until his death in 2010. This month, 40 years ago, he was kidnapped, together with a co-worker, Fátima Cabrera, by the Argentine authorities.

They were held in clandestine prisons, and tortured, but lucky to survive. I was working at the time in the Irish embassy in Buenos Aires, and was involved in securing his release. I developed a friendship with him that lasted for the rest of his life.