There was a large meitheal in the Bronx and Yonkers last week to help Owen McConnell, a young carpenter and family man stricken with stage-4 lung cancer from his work at the World Trade Center after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, reports Niall O’Dowd of Irish Central. In Ireland, a meitheal is a team of workers or neighbors who work together to help a neighbor in need, helping with crops or building barns or the like. Everyone contributes and recipients now will be helpers later.
Though the weather was bad, entertainers, volunteers, friends, and well-wishers gathered at eleven pubs after a morning Mass for a huge display of kindness and Irish music.
McConnell and his wife Joanne have four young children. Owen was raised in Donegal.
