Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - News

08 January 2009

The Chair, Members, Chief Executive and staff of the Community Relations Council have learnt with great sadness of the sudden death of Terence Donaghy. Chair Tony McCusker said,

“Terence was a founding member of the Community Relations Council in 1990 on which he served until 1993. He brought an enormous and genuine commitment to the work of reconciliation in our divided society and this was invaluable in establishing the work and vision of the Council.”

He continued his personal pursuit of peace and reconciliation by making a point of visiting churches of different denominations on a regular basis. This was recounted in a page (096) included recently in the book ‘100 Small Steps’ published by the One Small Step Campaign (and reprinted in a Belfast Telegraph supplement on 13 October). In the contribution he wrote “My dream is that this (visiting of other churches) would become a normal part of Christian faith and worship in Northern Ireland and contribute to longed-for healing of wounds’.

Tony McCusker adds ‘It said a lot about Terence’s continuing and heart-felt commitment to the cause of peace that his last hours were spent in a peace rally protesting against the deaths arising out of the conflict in Gaza. He will be sadly missed.”