Irish priest to be waked in Korea

A Cavan missionary priest who sadly died during Covid is to be honoured in his adopted home of Korea in the most Irish way possible - by his friends waking his memory.

Born on Francis Street in Cavan Town, and educated in the local De La Salle primary school and St Patrick’s College, Fr Kevin Laurence O’Rourke was ordained a Columban priest in 1963 before going to South Korea a year later.

He first served as assistant pastor in the Gangwon Province, and later taught at Kyung Hee University from 1977 to 2005, having been the first non Korean to receive a doctorate in Korean literature from Yonsei University in 1982.

He died October 23, 2020.

Michelle Winthrop is the Ambassador of Ireland to Korea. She says Fr Kevin’s legacy and influence on Korean literary culture is still being remembered, most recently with a special award for translation named in his honour.

Such was his immersion in the language and culture of his adopted country that, during his lifetime, Fr Kevin translated venerated generational Korean poems, novels, and other literary works.

This included Choi In-hun’s novel ‘The Square,’ Lee Mun-yol’s ‘Our Twisted Hero’, So Chong-ju’s poetry collection, and Yi Sang’s ‘Wings: Volume 091’, as well as song lyrics and poems from the Goryeo and Joseon eras.

In 1989 he won the Korean National Literature Prize for his translations, and was granted an honorary South Korean citizenship in 2007. He also won the presidential citation for services to the Korean language and literature from then President Lee Myung-bak in 2009.

He is part of a tiny but renowned Irish group of Asian scholars that includes the Dublin-raised Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) and Mayo’s Eileen Kato, an expert in Japanese poetry and theatre.

Now in its 55th year, the Korean Times run ‘Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards’ invites translators from around the world to participate. The inaugural ‘Fr Kevin Award’ is set to celebrate an entry in either fiction/drama or poetry and stand its author a chance at winning a million won (€675.36).

“He was an amazing man, really brilliant,” Ambassador Winthrop tells the Celt.

“He had his admirers and fans and friends and colleagues, all of whom still celebrate and recognise the work Fr Kevin did.”

She says that during the worst of the pandemic, with restrictions worldwide, many were left feeling unable to remember the Cavanman as they felt he deserved.

His funeral took place at the Catholic University of Korea Eunpyeong, St Mary’s Hospital, with a service afterwards at the Missionary Society of Saint Columban centre in Seoul.

But now Ambassador Winthrop wants to host a wake in Fr Kevin’s honour, and this is planned for October 17, the week before an annual literature festival takes place in the South Korean Capital.

Ambassador Winthrop took up her current post in August 2022 but, no sooner had she settled into the Irish embassy in downtown Seoul, she began hearing about “‘Fr Kevin this, Fr Kevin that’. Kevin from Cavan. It became very apparent to me that this was a person for whom life had become this one big cultural journey. He mastered the Korean language,” she exclaims, before pointing out that Korean is one of the hardest in the world to learn. “Trust me, I’m trying really, really hard. It’s really difficult.”

Ambassador Winthrop lists off several more deserved accolades bestowed upon Fr Kevin during his life, including having a library at the embassy named after him in 2010, and picking up the globally recognised Daesan Literary Award in translation in 2017.

Fr Kevin sat too on the Korean Times.

“He turned his hand to the language, to the culture, to translating and to writing his own work. He was an English lecturer as well. It was phenomenal. So it’s important his work and his influence is recognised.”

Ambassador Winthrop suggests there can, in modern times at least, be an “eye-roll” when it comes to recognising the influence of the Catholic church.

“It doesn’t take having to be a devout Catholic to stand back and recognise how awesome these people were,” she says of the missionary movement.

To find that the path Ambassador Winthrop is walking now has been walked by many Irish before her she says is “fascinating”. Even still she’s learning a little more each day.

“Fr Kevin wrote this book called ‘40 years in Korea without a Horsehair Hat’, a gas book, but when I arrived someone gave it to me, and to be honest I struggled a bit with it. A lot of it was lost on me, a lot of it had hilarious stories about wheels falling off jeeps and stuff like that. But actually I went back and re-read it about six months ago, and I was blown away by it with a little bit of knowledge and context.”

Ambassador Winthrop says the old fashioned Irish wake has already got members of the Irish community living in South Korea talking.

“There’ll be a few tunes, we’ll read some of Fr Kevin’s work, and we’ll raise an auld glass to him. What should have happened, but for Covid to intervene.”