This isn’t the first time the tightly-knit communities of Liscarney, Cushlough and Carrakennedy have found themselves praying for Gena Heraty and the vulnerable people she serves in Haiti. The long-serving missionary has been kidnapped, along with seven others, from the orphanage she works in.
Heraty is from Co Mayo and grew up in this rural area, 12km from Westport, on the scenic road to Leenane. She has faced danger a number of times over the 32 years she has worked as a lay missionary in the Caribbean country.
Heraty is the director of the Sainte-Hélène orphanage, which is run by Nos Petits Frères et Soeurs in Kenscoff. In 2010, she cheated death when a huge earthquake devastated parts of the island nation. A young missionary colleague was killed at the time.
On Monday night, her cousin Bridie O’Malley was one of hundreds of people who attended Mass in Cushlough church, Co Mayo.
RM Block
“The community is absolutely devastated. Gena has been such a shining light in all our lives for so long. She is a wonderful, wonderful girl who has dedicated her whole life to caring for the orphaned children of Haiti,” said O’Malley.
“We had a packed church and there were hundreds of people and many of them just sitting in their cars outside because they couldn’t fit in the church. There was not one sound in the congregation and all her family was there.”
Bridie and Gena’s mothers were first cousins and while Bridie is older than Gena, she remembers her clearly in her youth.
“She went to the school here in Carrakennedy and then on to the Sacred Heart secondary school in Westport. It really became very evident from her early 20s that she was a special person. Whenever there are fundraisers for her charity in Westport and its surrounds, you don’t have to ask people to put their hands in their pockets.”
Fr John Kenny, the administrator of Westport parish, concelebrated the Mass with the local priest, Fr Britus Kadavunkal.
Speaking to The Irish Times on Tuesday, Fr Kenny said: “The huge sense of support and solidarity was palpable during the Mass and afterwards as people gathered in huddles to talk to Gena’s family.
“We must stay hopeful. There is a silver lining in so far as the people of Haiti love this woman who has dedicated her life to them and is held in such high standing.”
June Bourke, who lives in the nearby townland of Knappagh, has been in regular contact with Gena over the years. Their shared love of flowers and plants meant Gena often sent pictures of foliage that flourished in the Caribbean but wouldn’t have much chance of surviving in the salt-soaked climate of the Atlantic seaboard.
Expressing her “shock and worry” about Ms Heraty’s kidnapping, Ms Bourke said: “Gena is such a positive person and no matter what catastrophe was happening over the years, her texts to me would always end with a positive note.
“While I know her heart is in Haiti, she has never left her native place behind her and that is no surprise because of its strong sense of community. Whenever she was home, she greeted everyone with a hug.”
Henry McGlade was filming at the Bonniconlon Agricultural Show on Monday when his phone rang. It was news of the kidnap of Gena and seven others. McGlade runs TV Ireland, which broadcasts programmes on a Sky channel that proves popular with the Irish diaspora.
“I was the MC in a Westport hotel for a big fundraiser concert for the orphanage in May 2023,” he recalled. “She gave such a passionate speech that night and we made a documentary around it afterwards. I am so shocked and distraught by the news. To me she is a walking saint.”
