Tipp participants at IKA Service of Remembrance

Members of the family of a deceased organ donor from Rossmore in Co Tipperary attended the Irish Kidney Association's pre-recorded 37th Annual Service of Remembrance & Thanksgiving which will be broadcast on RTÉ One and RTÉ Radio One Extra this Sunday at 11am.

Carrying the Book of Remembrance, which is a roll of honour of organ donors, to the altar was Paul Millett, from London, whose late partner Nora O'Gorman Miller from Rossmore, was an organ donor. Attending the service with Paul was his late partner Nora's brother Eddie O'Gorman and his wife Anne, and they were photographed outside with Emma Corrigan, an organ donor co-ordinator, Organ Donation Transplant Ireland.

Joan Gavan, the National Honorary Treasurer of the Irish Kidney Association, from Donohill, Tipperary, also took part in the Service of Remembrance by reading a prayer and she was a member of the Liturgy Committee for the Service. Joan is a living kidney donor.

Thousands of organ donor families and grateful transplant recipients will tune in at home and abroad to watch the Irish Kidney Association’s third virtual and 37th Annual Service of Remembrance & Thanksgiving. The inter-faith Service was pre-recorded by Kairos Communications at Newman University Church, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, for broadcast on RTÉ One and RTÉ Radio 1 Extra (LW252) on Sunday, October 30, at 11am.

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.

Since its inception 37 years ago, the Service has become a hugely important event in the calendar of members of the organ donation and transplant community. The confidential database for organ donor families is held by Organ Donation Transplant Ireland (ODTI).

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 by 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”.