A wreath to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the Vatican priest who is credited with saving the lives of thousands of people during the second World War was laid on his grave in Cahersiveen Co Kerry on Thursday night.
A native of Kerry, Monsignor O'Flaherty was the subject of the film The Scarlet and the Black, starring Gregory Peck. Mgr O'Flaherty was awarded the US Medal of Freedom as well as honours from Canada, Australia, and Britain for helping escaped prisoners of war, refugees and Jews. The Israeli Government also honoured him with a tree-planting in a Holocaust Memorial park in Jerusalem.
However, apart from a grove of trees in the Killarney National Park named after him and a poem by Brendan Kennelly, he is little remembered here, said Mr Denis O'Sullivan of the Cahersiveen development association who organised the wreath laying.
His niece Ms Pearl Dineen said the family knew nothing about his role until reporters began to arrive in Cahersiveen where he lived for the last three years of his life with his sister. His nephew is the former Supreme Court Judge Mr Hugh O'Flaherty.