Teenagers urged to ‘be a door’ for trapped peers

Students should remember how they can make a difference for friends who are struggling, Ireland rugby coach Joe Schmidt said last Friday at a Mass in Knock to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Kerry teenager Donal Walsh.

“If you see that one of your friends is struggling, in a dark place and can’t see the door, remember that you can be the door for that person. You can be the one that makes a difference by listening and by being there to support them,” he said.

Urging students to take inspiration from Donal Walsh’s resilience in his battle with cancer, he said: “Donal had wonderful courage and fortitude, to have lost battles, endure pain in the knowledge that there would be no recovery, to speak out and inspire others and show such courage and maturity is hugely inspirational and influential.”

Speakers

Other speakers at the Mass, to which transition year and fifth-year students from across Ireland were invited by the Youth Ministry at Knock Shrine, included onetime Manchester United player Fr Philip Mulryne OP, Fr Dermot Donnelly, brother of Declan Donnelly of ‘Ant & Dec’, and Istvan Markuly a Permaculturist from Cork who motivated students to think about the environment and the various ways we can care for our common home.

The 3,000 students at the ceremony also heard onetime Leinster rugby player Ian McKinley share the story of how he was forced to retire from rugby after losing sight in his left eye but did not give up and returned to the sport in 2014 using specially manufactured goggles.

In his speech he said three things Donal Walsh had said had changed his life: the importance of opening up and telling someone you are going through a hard time; to have Faith that things will get better and that “…In the darkness…a door will open.”

The Mass, which was concelebrated by the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, and Kerry’s Bishop Ray Browne, was filmed by Kairos and broadcast on RTÉ 1 on Sunday, May 13.