Michael Feeney, MBE, is the founder of the

County Mayo Peace Park and Garden of Remembrance The County Mayo Peace Park and Garden of Remembrance is a project to document people from County Mayo who lost their lives in both World Wars. The park is located in Castlebar, County Mayo. History The park was conceived by Michael Feeney. ...

. An Irish citizen he was awarded the MBE due to his services in promoting British-Irish relations by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in the Queen's

New Year Honours List The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark thi ...

in 2010.

Early and private life

He was born in

Castlebar Castlebar () is the county town of County Mayo, Ireland. Developing around a 13th century castle of the de Barry family, from which the town got its name, the town now acts as a social and economic focal point for the surrounding hinterland. Wit ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the yew trees") is a county in Ireland. In the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Coun ...

. Feeney is the founder of the County Mayo Peace Park and Garden of Remembrance. He was educated at St Patrick's school in Castlebar up to the age of 14. He worked for the local Bacon Company before moving to the Health Service Executive. He has supported the development of soccer in Mayo and was Secretary of the Mayo League until 1986. Feeney is married to Mary Feeney and has two children, and lives in Castlebar. He spent several years in the FCA.

County Mayo Peace Park and Garden of Remembrance

The

is a project to document people from County Mayo who lost their lives in both

World Wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

. It was officially opened by

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ga, Máire Pádraigín Mhic Ghiolla Íosa; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer and former politician who served as the eighth president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. She is an academic ...

, the

President of Ireland The president of Ireland ( ga, Uachtarán na hÉireann) is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces. The president holds office for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms.Constitu ...

in October 2008. The annual

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in t ...

Services to commemorate Mayo's

World War A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I, Worl ...

dead began in 1999, when Feeney organised an official Remembrance mass in the Church of the Holy Rosary in Castlebar following research which showed that a significant number of County Mayo soldiers were killed in action in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in the uniforms of many nations.

Pte Patrick Feeney

Feeney's grandfather, Patrick Feeney, of the 1st Battalion

Connaught Rangers The Connaught Rangers ("The Devil's Own") was an Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army formed by the amalgamation of the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) (which formed the ''1st Battalion'') and the 94th Regiment of Foot (w ...

was killed in action on Thursday 22 July 1915 near Rue-Tilleroy France the day the

were finally relieved after spending 16 days in the front line. Patrick Feeney was a professional soldier and served in the South Africa Campaign, he had left the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

in 1911. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 he was mobilised and returned to the

Colours Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...

to serve with the

once more. He was buried in the Royal Irish Graveyard in

Laventie Laventie (; vls, Wentie) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography A small farming and light industrial town, situated some northeast of Béthune and west of Lille, at the junction of the ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. Feeney was awarded the MBE due to his services in promoting British-Irish relations by

at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in the Queen's

in 2010.

Published work

Feeney compiled a book ''Remembering Mayo's Fallen Heroes''. This was a collaborative work with a number of authors and was launched in September 2008.

References

External links

The Official Site of Mayo Peace Park.
Remembered at last in Mayo

Remarks by President McAleese at the official opening of Mayo Peace Park, Castlebar, Tuesday 7 October 2008

Irish War Memorials Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feeney, Michael People from Castlebar Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire People from County Mayo Year of birth missing (living people)