Seamus Heaney's quote "Who is my neighbor? My neighbor is all mankind" has become something of a motto for the Irish relief organization Concern Worldwide, which has been serving the world's neediest neighbors for over 40 years.

It was founded in 1968, when, in his first assignment as Diocesan Director of Catholic Action in Nigeria and Parish Priest of Uli, Father Aengus Finucane found himself involved in the bitter civil war between Nigeria and Biafra. An emergency airstrip in the parish of Uli was widened in order to take up to forty flights of relief supplies a night. Father Finucane and his parishioners unloaded and distributed these essential goods under conditions of extreme danger. "Uli was bombed every day," Father Finucane recalled, "but the Biafrans were lined up in the forest with truckloads of gravel . . . to fill the holes in the runway."

From these experiences of hardship, suffering and conflict, Concern was born, with Fr. Aengus and his brother Fr. Jack among the founders.

For years to come, Father Finucane traveled to disaster areas, working with Concern in Bangladesh, Thailand and Uganda, and witnessing the horrors of Rwanda first hand. In 1981, he became Concern's chief executive, a post he held until 1997, when he became honorary president of Concern Worldwide U.S.

The organization, which is headquartered in Dublin, set up its U.S. operation in 1994 when Siobhan Walsh, whose work in devising a unique campaign for building homes for refugees, brought Concern the Gold Award from Europe's top marketing competition, transferred to New York to work as part of a small team for Concern in America. In 1996, Walsh became executive director of Concern U.S., with headquarters in New York and an office in Chicago.

Over the past 14 years, Walsh, who like Fr. Aengus is a native of County Limerick, has become the dynamic force behind the organization in the U.S. With the aid of the American Board, chaired by Irish-American of the Year Tom Moran, the organization's profile has never been higher. Concern's 11th annual "Seeds of Hope" dinner on December 5, 2007 at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park in New York City, was the best attended dinner to date, with some 520 guests and over $1.5 million raised for the world's neediest people.

Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who was the "Seeds of Hope" honoree, paid tribute to Concern, which marks its 40th anniversary in 2008. "You are there when you are needed," he said of Ireland's largest international humanitarian organization.

For all that they do, Irish America is pleased to honor Fr. Finucane, Siobhan Walsh and all the members of the Concern team, who do much for so many.

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