Sculpture of Msgr. Hugh O’Flaherty Killarney Co. Kerry

On Wednesday 30th October 2013, a sculpture was unveiled to permanently commemorate the Irish World War II hero, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who formed the Rome Escape Line in Nazi occupied Rome. Before the liberation of Rome, this enterprising and resourceful Kerryman and his colleagues saved over 6,500 people from certain death.
The Monsignor was known throughout the world for his humanitarian work but up to recently his deeds were relatively unknown in Ireland. In 2008 a Memorial Society was formed to rectify this and today is the culmination of this work with the unveiling of a 6ft 8inch sculpture of the Monsignor at the intersection of Mission Road and Beech Road in Killarney town centre.
Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, another maverick cleric with the common touch who was perhaps the most remarkable Irishman to ever serve at the Vatican.
Monsignor O’Flaherty, the son of a steward at the Killarney golf course, was fluent in Italian and German, held three doctorates and was an amateur golf champion. But his real claim to fame was as the “Vatican Pimpernel” in Nazi-occupied Rome in the second World War. As the lead behind the “Rome Escape Line”, he saved the lives of six and a half thousand prisoners of war, partisans and Jews. And he did it all with considerable panache from his HQ in of all places the German College, nestled right beside Saint Peter’s Basilica.
Despite a 1980s TV film starring Gregory Peck and honours showered on him by the Allied nations, Italy and Israel after the war, he is hardly a household name. Yet, he has been called the Irish Schindler who took on the Third Reich in a daring operation, sheltering fugitives in convents, monasteries and Italian homes.
He smuggled out Jewish people disguised as nuns and monks, passed partisans off as Swiss guards and hid the thousands of prisoners of war who flocked to him on the steps of St Peter’s. They were seeking the sanctuary of the church at a time when Hitler recognised the Vatican’s neutrality, all under the noses of Nazi guards. He was also fond of the odd disguise himself - once as a coalman to evade a Nazi raid on a palazzo. He was even rumoured to have dressed as a nun.
His story is one of humanity against oppression, where “God has no country” in his striking phrase.

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Hugh O’Flaherty Remains in Loving memory for His Personal Fortitude at the hands of Despotic and Unconscionable European Behavior
That This Lesson has been learned remains to be recorded in the future