A reminder that a
Winter Concert at Kildare Cathedral, featuring the
Gormanstown Choir, on Saturday 29 November will raise funds for the next mission to Syria by
Atlantic Humanitarian Relief (AHR),
writes Brian Byrne. Guest performers include Arthur Greene playing the cathedral organ, the Dara String Quartet, and the Oldcourt Duo.
Doors open at 7.15pm, and tickets at €20 are available at the door. There will be a raffle, generously supported by individuals and Kildare businesses, and brief talks from Irish AHR volunteers, who include several from the Kilcullen area.
Operated by AHR since 2010, volunteers on the missions are from America, other parts of Europe and, increasingly in recent years, from Ireland. The twice-a-year missions provide medical, paediatric, surgical, and dental care, as well as humanitarian aid. Until this year, by necessity, they were focused on refugee camps in Northern Jordan. In April and November 2025, AHR commenced medical missions to Syria, the first conducted inside the country since the fall of the Al-Assad regime in November 2024.
"Essential medical and dental care is basically unavailable in most communities within Syria," says Dr Brendan O'Shea, who is Assistant Adjuvant Professor in Primary Care and Public Health at Trinity College Dublin. "People are dying from untreated diabetes and hypertension. The AHR 2025 missions have begun collaborating on which services can be reestablished and which are most urgently needed. The missions have been successful in forming working partnerships with several selected hospitals, community clinics, and dental facilities, and in 2026, we plan to build on these partnerships."
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