Fr Gabriel Dolan SPS is awarded a 2023 Presidential Distinguished Service Award by President Michael D. Higgins. Kenya-based Kiltegan missionary Fr Gabriel Dolan SPS who has risked his life to support the poor and vulnerable was awarded a 2023 Presidential Distinguished Service Award by President Michael D. Higgins last week.
Following the award, Fr Dolan told The Irish Catholic he was “honoured” and that he believes “it’s a recognition that the Church still has a contribution to make in development work, in human rights work… That resonates and it touches the lives of people, it brings recognition, not so much to me, but to that work that still needs to be done in our world”.
For more than 40 years, Fr Dolan has lived and worked as a missionary in Kenya. Originally from Co. Fermanagh, Fr Dolan was ordained in 1982 and appointed to the east-African country. He was posted first to the remote arid northern region of Turkana (including during the severe famine years of 1979-1981), later to the West Pokot region and then on to Mombasa where he has stayed since 2008.
Fr Dolan set up Haki Yetu (‘Our Rights’ in Swahili) in Mombasa, a human rights NGO that advocates for vulnerable communities and helps mobilise citizens to campaign on their own behalf for social justice and change. He served as Executive Director of Haki Yetu until the end of 2023. Supported by Misean Cara since 2013, Haki Yetu has a built a strong reputation for defending vulnerable, landless people and victims of forced evictions and historical land injustices.
Asked about his security over the years, Fr Dolan said: “I’ve had them [death threats] in the past. And I think that people wouldn’t give you a threat anymore, they would just get it over with. So you have to have a light touch to this, I don’t stay awake worrying about my security, I never did, I might stay awake wondering what we should do next and thinking about what is the best strategy forward but I never worried.”