The County Mayo Peace Park and Garden of Rememembrance is a project to document natives of County Mayo who lost their lives in both World Wars.[1]
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The park was conceived by Michael Feeney.[2] It was officially opened by Mary McAleese, the President of Ireland in October 2008.[1] The annual Remembrance Day Services to commemorate the 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.
Because the peace park only commemorates those who fought for the British Army and not those who died in the Irish War of Independence and the Easter Rising the park has been criticized. A commemoration to Cornelius Coughlan, a Victoria Cross recipient for services during the Indian Mutiny, was described as a "war crime commemoration" by Dr Pat Muldowney, a historian and lecturer at the University of Ulster [3] Recently the Peace Park was described as "a monument to the British" by Fianna Fáil Mayo County Council group leader Al McDonnell. McDonnell specifically referred to the MBE accepted by Feeney and the laying of a plaque for a man who died in Iraq.[4]