The Government has been called upon to raise its concerns about the court martial and execution of two Ugandan soldiers following the murder of Irish Mill Hill missionary, Father Declan O'Toole, in northern Uganda last week.
The appeal was made by Father Michael Corcoran, the Mill Hill Missions' regional representative in east Africa, during his tribute to Father O'Toole at his burial yesterday.
Speaking to the large congregation which included the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, Father Corcoran said the issue could "easily get lost" and he was asking the Government to make sure that it did not.
It was "not fair" that two young men should be held responsible for something that they may not have done or may have been commanded to do, Father Corcoran said.
He asked for prayers for both soldiers, one of whom was a Muslim and one a Christian. Yesterday it was reported that at the court martial hearing, the two soldiers - Cpl James Omediyo and Pte Abdullah Mohammed - had denied any involvement.
Prayers were also asked for Fidelis and Patrick, the two Ugandan parish workers travelling with Father O'Toole who were also killed in the ambush. The three men died in the incident which took place just over a week ago in the eastern Karamoja region of Uganda.
Framed photographs of the two parish workers and a photograph of the first Christening ceremony which Father O'Toole performed after his ordination five years ago were among the gifts brought to the altar at the Requiem Mass in St Mary's church, Claran, near Headford, yesterday. It was celebrated by Father Bernard Phelan, assistant superior general with the Mill Hill Missionaries in London, and presided over by the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary.
African chants and drums formed part of the service, at which there were moving tributes by Father O'Toole's sister, Ita, and his close friend in Uganda, Father Declan Hartnett. Father Hartnett described Kotido, where they had worked, as "a mission in semi-desert conditions" and "a place of contrasts, between the sheer physical beauty and yet the underlying fortress; between the spontaneous hospitality of the people, and yet the destructive hostility; between the sweetness of colourful life and the smell of ever-present death".
Father O'Toole had volunteered to go to the new mission, and had thrown himself fully into learning a rather difficult language, Father Hartnett said. As people had found it difficult to pronounce his name, he became known as "apollopus", the name of a rare grey-blue bull.
"The people could see something rare and beautiful, something distinctive in the character of Declan," he added.
Yesterday Father Corcoran spoke of Father O'Toole's immense love for Uganda and its people. He had a strong presence among the people of the area in which he worked, he said, and although he had courage, he also had a fear about the situation.
Yet he was full of life, enthusiasm and humour, and Father Corcoran recalled his last recent encounter with him in Kampala when he had risen to the challenge of serving behind the bar at a function for Mill Hill missionaries.
Father Corcoran paid tribute to the assistance afforded over the past week by the Irish embassy in Uganda, whose deputy head, Mr Cormac Gallagher, attended the funeral Mass.
There was much distress at the graveside within the church grounds when Father O'Toole's coffin was wheeled out by his family and he was laid to rest under a mountain ash sapling, planted at the time of his ordination in St Mary's on June 28th, 1998. Chief mourners were Father O'Toole's parents, Paul and Carmel, his sisters Ita and Sharon, his brother Kenneth and his extended family.
The Mill Hill Missionaries' regional superior in Ireland, Father Maurice Crean, led a large delegation from the mission. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was represented by his aide-de-camp, Capt Ger O'Grady.
