Michael Feeney, MBE, is the founder of the County Mayo Peace Park and Garden of Remembrance.
[3] The annual Remembrance Day Services to commemorate Mayo's World War 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 and World War II in the uniforms of many nations.
Feeney's grandfather, Patrick Feeney, of the 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers was killed in action on Thursday 22 July 1915 near Rue-Tilleroy France the day the Connaught Rangers 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 in 1911.
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 he was mobilised and returned to the Colours to serve with the Connaught Rangers once more.