County Meath senator Dominic Hannigan has called for an Irish Aid project to commemorate a Meath born Anglican bishop who pioneered the evangelisation of Lesotho in southern Africa. Richard Townley Balfour came from an aristocratic family and grew up at Townley hall near Slane. Balfour was born in 1845, educated in England and took holy orders with the intention of becoming a clergyman in Buckingham.
However, because he had poor health, he was advised to move to a warmer climate and went to Basutoland, as the land-locked country was then known.
There, Balfour used his extensive personal wealth to build missions and introduced thousands of people to Christianity. He had to leave the region during the Boer war but returned when peace resumed and was made the first Christian bishop of Lesotho.
In total, he spent fifty years traversing the country on horseback introducing people to Christianity. As well as evangelisation, Balfour adopted Christian positions on a number of political issues and insisted on the return of a donation to build a church to a man who had made the grant conditional on black people being barred from it.
Senator Hannigan said that Irish Aid, the third word development arm of the Department of Foreign Affairs, should fund a project in Lesotho to commemorate the famous Meath missionary.
“The last of the Balfours left Townley Hall in the 1950s and their estate of 344 hectares was sold to the land and forestry commissions and since then, many people have been able to spend glorious days walking the paths through the forests surrounding the land,” he said.
“My idea is to provide something similar in Lesotho and I have asked Irish officials to consider funding something which would be called the ‘Bishop Balfour way’ which would honour the famous bishop.”
The project would bring benefits for the impoverished country, which is one of the biggest recipients of Irish overseas aid, he claimed. “It would also bring much-needed tourist revenue into Lesotho and help lift more of its people out of poverty.”
Lesotho is surrounded by South Africa and is one of the twentieth poorest countries in the world.
Senator Hannigan said that he had been introduced to the work of Bishop Balfour by Ireland’s ambassador in Lesotho, Paddy Fay.
SIC: CIN/IE