The Kilkenny-born essayist, Hubert Butler, was ostracised from his community for his pursuit of the truth, a conference celebrating his life and work was told at the weekend.
Offering an apology on behalf of the people of the city, the Mayor of Kilkenny, Mr Paul Cuddihy, said that, like Dr Noel Browne, Butler had stood up for what he believed in. "And like Noel Browne, he suffered for it," he added. Butler, who died in 1991, was denounced by politicians and forced to resign from the Kilkenny Archaeological Society in 1952 after he attempted to oppose a campaign to forcibly convert Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism in wartime Croatia.