Courtney McGrailThe son of the late Munster rugby player Anthony Foley has launched a Facebook prayer appeal in honour of his father.
Eleven-year-old Tony created the online appeal just hours after he lined out with younger brother Dan and his father’s team-mates at Limerick’s Thomond Park to pay tribute to Anthony, who died suddenly in Paris on October 16.
The Facebook appeal – Axel Foley Memorial – makes the simple request that, for the eight Sundays from October 30, people go to Mass and pray for deceased family and friends, and for Anthony Foley. October 30 would have been the player’s 43rd birthday.
The Facebook appeal reads: “Tony has been busy thinking of a tribute to his Dad and has asked that this page be set up in his memory. He wants to use it to ask people, who want to show their support, to attend Mass on each of the next eight Sundays to pray for people who have died and while there to offer a prayer for his Dad also.”
The appeal points out that, while the number eight was Anthony Foley’s jersey number, the eight Sundays culminate at “that special family time of year, Christmas”. Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick described Tony Foley’s initiative, which has to date been shared 800 times and has received 1,000 ‘Likes’, as “moving and inspirational”.
