Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I note the media and social media have been focused heavily on the death of another giant of a man, Gay Byrne, and rightly so, but I saw a small pocket of coverage dedicated to Fr. Des. The Irish Timesreferred to him as the peacemaking priest, while on Twitter and Facebook ordinary citizens of west Belfast have talked about the loss of their people's priest. It has been heartwarming to read other people's stories of Fr. Des, from how he helped a widowed mother to get back into education to how he opened dialogue between warring factions in the North. While some might say one of his contributions was more important than the other, I know that Fr. Des never did; he placed equal importance on helping people. I offer my condolences to the people of Springhill; they have lost a real force of nature.