Spencer Tracy immortalised him on screen and now his native heath has been put on the map. Ballymoe hasn't been quite the same since it took delivery of a bronze statue of Father Edward Flanagan, the founder of Boystown in the US.
The September 11th attacks on the US didn't alter the plan to present the life-size statue to the people of the small village on the Galway-Roscommon border. In fact, the president of the Girls and Boys Town Alumni Association, Mr Steve Wolf, was "determined to come" to the west as promised early last month - although a smaller group accompanied him.
Mr Wolf is one of many past residents of the homeless initiative which Father Flanagan established in Nebraska over 80 years ago.
The priest came from Leabeg, Co Roscommon. He was born in 1886 as one of a family of 12 which emigrated to the US in 1904. After his ordination, he worked with the homeless and in 1917, he opened a house for homeless boys in Omaha.
Father Flanagan had borrowed $90 to do it, and it was the start of a successful experiment which allowed the children to learn trades and run the "town" themselves under his leadership. In 1936, Boystown was designated a village by the state of Nebraska, and two years later it was the subject of a Hollywood film.
Spencer Tracy played the priest and won an Oscar for his performance, which he later donated to the town. Father Flanagan died in 1948, but there are now 17 such towns in the US, with a population of 35,000, and another 1.5 million children are assisted through Boystown services.
The statue was sculpted by Fred Hoppe of Nebraska, who has carried out commissions for the George Bush Presidential Library and was responsible for one of the world's largest bronze memorials to servicemen of the second World War. A second statue is to be dedicated in the grounds of the original Boystown campus in Omaha next year .
"He has the same standing in the US as Mother Teresa," Mr Wolf told The Irish Times. This occasion presents us with a wonderful opportunity to give thanks and show respect to him, and to the citizens of the State that formed him. We tend to think in the US that we invented the wheel, and yet we have gained so much from people like him who have come here. Father Flanagan is an all-Irish product and Ireland has a lot to be proud of."
A challenge was issued to the Ballymoe populace at the dedication ceremony, which was attended by the US Ambassador, Mr Richard Egan, and the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, along with the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Noel Treacy. It was delivered by Father Peter McVerry, the Jesuit priest and worker with homeless boys in Dublin, who had been asked by Father Alan Conway of Ballymoe to give the homily at the celebration Mass.
Father Flanagan's contribution should not be seen as an act of charity, but as an act of justice, Father McVerry said. The priest probably did not seek an acknowledgment for his work, nor should he have. So if the Ballymoe community wish to honour him fully, the best way to do this was to ensure that all children in the area received justice, Father McVerry said. "We really don't know poverty here in Ballymoe," Father Conway said. A socio-economic audit has shown that 71 per cent of the population is under 18, and the challenge is to ensure that it remains a good area for couples to rear their children.