Priest honoured on both sides of the world
Mass in memory of Fr Kevin O'Rourke to take place in Cavan.
A Cavan missionary priest, whose legacy and influence on Korean literary culture is still being celebrated, will to be memorialised later this week in two different time zones and nearly 9,000 kilometres apart.
The late Fr Kevin O'Rourke, a native of Cavan Town and a Columban Missionary priest, sadly died during Covid. But he is now set to be honoured in his adopted home of Korea in the most Irish way possible - by his friends waking his memory - while a Mass takes place here on home soil at the same time.
On Thursday, October 17, Ambassador of Ireland to Korea Michelle Winthrop and the Embassy of Ireland in Seoul will host their event to honour Fr Kevin, marking 60 years since his arrival in Korea.
The event will gather some of Fr Kevin’s dearest friends, colleagues and family members, to reflect on his work and his contribution to Korean life and society.
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.
Legacy
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.
Guests to the Korean Irish-style wake will include members of the Columban Missionary community, KyungHee and Yonsei Universities, the media, his circle of poets and poetry enthusiasts, the Irish community, and of course his family.The evening will include a screening of a clip of a TV interview done with Fr Kevin, followed by an introduction by Ambassador Winthrop and a prayer on behalf of the Columban Missionaries - in particular for recently departed members of the community.
There will also be a series of readings of Fr Kevin’s work, covering the many facts of Fr Kevin's life - as a priest, a poet, a translator and an Irishman living in Korea, which he wrote about in his iconic 'My Korea: 40 Years Without a Horsehair Hat, and as a family man.
At the same time here in Ireland a Mass will be celebrated at Fr O'Rourke's alma mater, the chapel at the old St Patrick's College, now the Kilmore Diocesan Pastoral Centre on Thursday morning, October 17, at 10am.
From Cavan Town, one of three brothers, Fr Kevin's family ran a hardware store on Market Square.
He was educated in the local De La Salle primary school and entered St Patrick’s College in 1952, graduating from there before going on to be ordained a Columban priest in 1963 following which he went 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 on October 23, 2020.
Fr Kevin 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’ launches its inaugural ‘Fr Kevin Award’ to celebrate an entry in either fiction/drama or poetry.
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The Mass in honour of Fr Kevin will be live-streamed on The Anglo-Celt Facebook page from 10am on Thursday, October 17.