Concern Founder Aengus Finucane Dies Aged 77

Aengus Finucane, a pioneer of international humanitarian aid and the founder of Concern Worldwide, died last week in Dublin at age 77.

Known for his passionate commitment to the world's poorest, he often said: "We have a strong inclination to do evil:  you have to fight like hell to do good."

"There can be few Irish people of his generation, or of any other generation, who have contributed as much to improving the lives of so much of humanity," said Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern.

A missionary for the Holy Ghost Fathers, Finucane was based in Nigeria in 1967 when a bloody civil war broke out over the breakaway state of Biafra, leading to a devastating famine.

The experience transformed him overnight into a professional humanitarian aid worker, as he rallied support from his homeland to send food and relief supplies by air and sea.

The Nigerian government regularly bombed a makeshift airstrip that handled as many as 50 flights carrying relief shipments a night.

"The Biafra crisis," Finucane said recently, "was the world's first televised famine.

"Those images had a huge impact on audiences in the West," he said, and they sparked an enormous outpouring of support.

That crisis led to the founding of the two international, non-governmental humanitarian aid agencies Concern Worldwide and Medicins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in 1968.

For the next 30 years, Finucane worked among the world's poorest in conflicts, natural disasters, and famines, including Bangladesh, following the country's war of independence from Pakistan; Cambodia, during the reign of the Khmer Rouge; and Uganda, in the aftermath of the rule of Idi Amin.

Finucane served as CEO of Concern from 1981 until 1997. He advocated for the poor at international, national and local levels, keeping their concerns foremost in his mind. 

Finucane established Concern Worldwide US in the mid-90s and, from 1997 onward, acted as Honorary President, devoting his energies to working hand-in-hand with Tom Moran, who became Chairman of Concern Worldwide US and worked to develop the organization in New York and Chicago.

In his role at Concern US, Aengus cultivated relationships with a great number of generous Irish American philanthropists and encouraged them to take on the cause of the poor.

"Anyone who had the pleasure of working with Aengus knows that he will be sorely missed. He was one of a kind," said Tom Moran, CEO, Chairman & President of Mutual of America, and Chairman of the Board of Concern Worldwide US. "The responsibility of caring for the poorest of the poor has now been passed from Aengus to each of us," he said.

Today Concern works in 28 of the world's poorest countries, including 17 sub-Saharan African nations, and reaches some 25 million people.