2012-11-09_Jeju_Isidore_Fr_Michael_Nun-1333 - Thomas Lee Coyner (SeoulMan)'s Photos

June~July 2012 cross country photo project with the primary objective to capture images representing linkage between Korea and Ireland, in Ireland. October~November is devoted to the same project but within Korea. The project is underwritten by the Embassy of Ireland, Seoul.

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2012-11-09_Jeju_Isidore_Fr_Michael_Nun-1333

2012-11-09_Jeju_Isadore_FRMichael_Church-1340_HDR

2012-11-09_Jeju_Isidore_Fr_Patrick_James_Mcglinchey_with_child-1385

2012-11-09_Jeju_Isidore_Fr_PJ_Mcglinchey_head-1409-mono

2012-11-09_Jeju_Isidore_Fr_PJ_Mcglinchey_head-1409-A

$Fr Michael took us to meet the third Columban Father we were to meet in Gwangju: Fr Noel O’Neill. Fr O’Neill works with people with learning disabilities with a grace and enthusiasm which is both engaging and infectious. Fr. O’Neill established the first group home for people with intellectual disability in Korea in Gwangju in 19--. He now runs 16 group homes which cater for about 4 people in each. He himself lives in one of the group homes living his vision of sharing the community with all people. He also runs a training centre for people with disabilities past school age with the aim of training them for employment in the community. For those who do not make it to open employment he runs other enterprises including a candle factory and a toilet paper plant and there are hopes to diversity into packaging soon. We were able to see the paper and candle factories in operation and can testify to the quality of the product produced. One of the ladies in the line packing the toilet paper had competed in the Special Olympics in Ireland. Some of her colleagues had travelled also, paying for the tickets from their wages. Fr O’Neill speaks with determination and dedication about his work with people who he has found to be let down too often by society, not just in Korea, but all around the world. We then had the honour to meet four young men now living in a group home. These four young men lived in a large institution until last year when it closed following a documentary exposing malpractice. The pride and joy on these men’s faces when they showed us their rooms - the first spaces to belong just to them - was magnificent and a testament to the work of Fr O’Neill over the past decades. To find out more about his work please have a look at this information online. We only had the opportunity to see a fraction of his work and I do hope to be back to learn more.$