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| A man carrying a photo of the Rev. Patrick McGlinchey follows a cleric carrying a cross at St. Isidore Farm on Jeju Island during the Irish priest's funeral on Friday. Behind them are people who were pallbearers. McGlinchey died on April 23 while undergoing treatment for myocardial infarction and renal failure at a hospital on Jeju. / Yonhap |
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Rev. Patrick James McGlinchey, an Irish priest and founder of the St. Isidore Farm in Jeju Island's Hallim area, died on April 23 while undergoing treatment for myocardial infarction and renal failure at a hospital on the island. He was 89.
McGlinchey, who arrived on Jeju in 1954 as a missionary from the Society of St. Colomban in Ireland, was an aid worker, an innovative cattle farmer, educator and social entrepreneur who created over 1,000 jobs through a weaving project.
During the funeral on Friday at the Saemi Hill of Grace Sanctuary at the farm, Bishop Kang woo-il, who oversaw McGlinchey's funeral Mass, said the Irish priest had transformed the once-abandoned island into fertile land.
"When Rev. McGlinchey arrived on Jeju Island in 1954, the entire nation was very poor and every day was a struggle for each and every Korean," Kang said. "I wonder if there would have been anyone else who could pull together what McGlinchey did on Jeju and for the islanders. He had lived such a wonderful, prolific life and as a fellow Catholic priest, I admire him."
The bishop said McGlinchey was a man who created something out of nothing and his trust in God was the main driver behind his remarkable accomplishments for the locals.
"He had a rock-solid belief about God and this helped him overcome a host of challenges that he had faced," the bishop said.
During his over six decades of life on the island, McGlinchey had helped local farmers cut the vicious circle of poverty and stand on their own feet.
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| The late Rev. Patrick James McGlinchey / Courtesy of Joon Choi |
He took a Yorkshire pig from his country and the pig had 10 piglets a year later. He gave 10 young farmers on the island each a piglet, which later paved the way for the flourishing cattle industry on the island in the 1970s.
He set up the St. Isidore Farm on the hilly side of the island in 1961 to train young cattle farmers in advanced farming techniques. Farmers learned how to raise cattle and milk them. McGlinchey himself was a child farmer and milked cows when he was a primary school student.
Jeju farmers raised cattle before he arrived there. Pigs were raised in a toilet.
Startled at the unsanitary way, McGlinchey showed the farmers a proper farming technique, but they didn't listen to the young Irish missionary.
He later said defeatist attitudes and pessimism were formidable challenges he faced in his early years on the island. "The first Korean I learned is 'an-deop-ni-da' (No, it's not going to work)," he said during a Korea Times interview in 2015. He said farmers were the most difficult people to teach. He focused on training younger farmers to help them become the agents of change.
McGlinchey was a principled aid worker. He taught the islanders how to fish instead of giving out free basic products. Rev. Michael Riordan, who succeeded McGlinchey as chairman of the Isidore Development Association in 2011, said McGlinchey was against giving out free clothes and free food. "If people are starving, you have to feed them," Riordan told The Korea Times in an earlier interview. "But if you keep feeding them, they become dependent on the person who is feeding them."
McGlinchey launched a weaving project to create jobs for women. He invited several Irish nuns who had expertise in weaving to help. The weaving factory once created 1,300 jobs for women and they were able to send their children to school.
McGlinchey was decorated by the Korean and Irish governments for his role in saving Jeju farmers from poverty. In 2014, he was honored by the Irish government with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award that was given to 10 eminent Irish people for their remarkable contribution to Ireland and the Irish community overseas. That year, he also won the Moran Medal of the Order of Civil Merit for his contribution to Korea.
McGlinchey suffered heart disease and his health declined. He died last week 64 years after arriving on the island. He has left a lasting legacy for the locals.
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