Angie Gough: Leadership means living our values, even when the road ahead is unclear

In her work mobilising the response of ordinary Irish people to the war in Ukraine, Angie Gough has often found herself recalling the motto of her mentor, Bishop Willie Walsh. What we need in leadership is kindness, compassion and consistency, she writes

Tony and Sheila Kenny at their home in Crettyard, Co Laois, with Katya Shelepova and her daughter Alisa Maneichyk from Ukraine: Today, 37,000 displaced Ukrainians live in 16,000 host homes — an extraordinary, community-led response on a scale Ireland has never seen before. Picture: Alf Harvey

Last month, I had the honour of speaking at a prayer service for the late Bishop Willie Walsh in Ennis. It was personal, but really, I was speaking for so many of us who loved him — the ones he listened to, walked alongside, and quietly lifted up. Not because we were powerful, but because we were people. And people really mattered to him.

His passing has me reflecting on leadership. His, mine, and the kind we need more of in the world.