BELFAST RB BOOKLET 2020 - Flipbook - Page 109
Ci t y of Belf ast Grand Bl ack Chapt er - Dem onst rat i on Bookl et 2020
"THAT'S ME" … 'AN OAK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS'
A fitting tribute to the memory of Worshipful Sir Knight and Brother Paul
Kinnear PDM; Chaplain, No 6 RBDC, Shankill Road.
Past District Master and District Chaplain to our West Belfast
encampment, Worshipful Sir Knight Paul Kinnear sadly died on
November 6th, 2019, after a chronic infirmity bravely borne. Paul
was a long serving and faithful member of George Telford
Memorial LOL No 1118 in No 7/8 Clifton Street District Lodge,
and Treasurer of Queen Victoria Temperance RBP No 550 in his
own parent Shankill Road District Chapter.
The congregation in a packed church given only hours to
heard how Paul had been confined to a live when he was
wheelchair after being seriously injured born on September
during an incident in 1978, as he walked 23rd, in 1988.
passed Black's Road in south Belfast near
Due to lack of
to where Hunter House is now located.
oxygen and other
During the Service of Thanksgiving, associated complications during his birth, in
Remembrance and funeral solemnities for the Salt Lake City USA, Matthew was left with
Life of our deceased District Chaplain, held on severe disabilities which included near
Monday 11th November last year, the blindness, paralysis and later in life, he was
Reverend Colin Gracie related a previous only able to speak very few words.
story that he and the congregation of Finaghy
Still, Matthew defied the odds and lived
Methodist Church had, when Paul was well for almost eleven years, before his
enough to attend the regular prayer meetings. passing, peacefully in his sleep during the
Paul was looking at his mobile, as he night of February 21st, 1999.
always did in order to locate his favourite
In order to transform Matthew’s grave into a
King James Version of the Biblical app, place of happiness, a year after his son's
and in turn showed everyone a picture he death, Ernest along with his cousin Susan
had come across whilst browsing, and also Cornish, fabricated a touching statue that now
shown again on a large screen, to the stands in memoriam of the young boy’s
congregation at the Funeral Service that courage.
morning. It was of a young
The inspirational sculpture
boy's tombstone in the form
depicts Matthew climbing out
of a sculpture, of the lad
of his wheelchair, healed from
leaping up and out of his
his earthly burdens as he
wheelchair and rejoicingly
moves toward heaven. In the
looking up to the heavens.
years since its completion,
SHOWING EVERYONE THE WEE
young Matthew’s gravesite
PICTURE, BACK AT THAT PRAYER
has become a source of
MEETING, PAUL THEN OPENLY
inspiration for folk grappling
REMARKED .. THAT'S ME!
with disabilities.
That particular tombstone had
The funeral eulogy in tribute
been arranged by Ernest and
outlined how Matthew was a joy
Anneke, the parents of Matthew
and inspiration to all who were
Stanford Robison who was
privileged to know him whereby
IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN - 107 - AND THE FUTURE OF THE LIVING