In a quiet graveyard in Cork near a busy shopping centre lie two of my brothers, surrounded by hundreds of their colleagues. All were missionary priests who spent time in Africa - in some cases many years - throughout the years of the 20 century. As a teenager growing up in Kerry in the 1950's I remember well the sense of wonder with which we bade them farewell as they sailed off to Nigeria; and later the excitement when they returned home on holidays. Among our extended family African place names became as familiar to us as Cork or Galway; Kerry or Dublin. Even to this day sonorous names such as Ibadan, Lagos, Benin, Warri, Oke Ofa, Obinumba, Bomadi, resonate in my memory.

The period around the mid 1900's was probably the heyday of the Irish missionary presence in Africa with hundreds - perhaps thousands - of priests, sisters, brothers and lay volunteers heading off each decade to try to make a spiritual and material contribution to that beautiful but troubled continent. The difficulties they faced were many and formidable - cultural differences, language, climate, health issues, under-developed infrastructures, and of course widespread poverty. Despite all of this the magnetic pull of Africa drew them back again and again, after their holiday periods at home. I once asked my brothers why they were so keen to return to Africa in spite of the many difficulties that awaited them. Their reply was that it was mainly the African people - especially the children - nearly always smiling despite a host of adversities, which drew them back.

Years passed and the world changed. Ill health struck both of my brothers and they returned to semi-retirement positions in Ireland.

The numbers of Irish people volunteering for the religious missionary life declined dramatically. The Church itself was buffeted by strong winds of change, and by scandals which were unimaginable a few decades earlier. But in spite of all this many core values remain strong and intact, as is evidenced by the extraordinary care with which the various religious houses look after their elderly and infIrm members. Both of my brothers passed away, one in the 1990s and the other last year after a long illness. One would need to be a family member, or at any rate a close friend and regular visitor, to fully appreciate the depth and the quality of the love and attention which they received in their final years from their religious colleagues and from the associated lay staff. Their work in Africa was not forgotten either. In his later years one of my brothers received a visit in Cork from a group of Nigerians, former students of his school, who presented him with a plaque which now sits on my desk and which reads "Fr. Kennedy, you shaped our destinies..."

Another generation has come along. Nowadays the impulse to try to contribute to Africa takes different forms. There is less emphasis on evangelisation and more on the provision of basic services. I recently read of a person working in Africa who stated that "when I dig a well to produce water for villagers, the water coming from the well is not Christian water or Muslim water, it is just drinking water". One of my own sons has recently spent a few months, with a group of his peers, as a volunteer assistant teacher in Africa with one of the many non-governmental agencies who now work there. The economic and social problems of Africa it seems are still as intractable as ever, and they are now accentuated by another threat which was unknown 50 years ago - the widespread threat of AIDS.

It would take a wiser person than me to judge when and how the peoples of Africa will eventually achieve that material standard of life which they deserve, and which is taken for granted by us in the developed world. Meanwhile the impulse to serve and contribute, which prompted 2 brothers to sail south 50 years ago, remains strong among Ireland's current younger generation. And images of Africa - sweeping landscapes, mysterious wildlife and, above all, children smiling through adversity - remain vivid in my mind