Friendship, Unity & Christian Charity · 2015-05-21 · From!the!Historian’s!Corner!!!!! Real!Irish!Heroes!!! !!!!!Monsignor!Hugh!O’Flaherty!...

Friendship, Unity & Christian Charity

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We hope to see as many Brothers as possible at our upcoming meetings, and bring an Irish Catholic friend to join our Order.

The next meetings will be on Thursday 5/21/15 at 7:00 PM and then again on Thursday 6/18/15 at 7:00 PM

“Cuimhnigi ar na daoine ar thainig sibh”

“Remember the people from whom you came”

“Irish Night at the St. Lucie Mets”

remember

From the Historian’s Corner Real Irish Heroes

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, CBE (28 February 1898 – 30 October 1963) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest and senior official of the Roman Curia. During World War II, he was responsible for saving 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews. His ability to evade the traps set by the German Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst, earned O'Flaherty the nickname "The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican". He was the first Irishman named Notary of the Holy Office. Shortly after O'Flaherty's birth in Lisrobin, Kiskeam, County Cork, his parents, James and Margaret, moved to Killarney. The family lived on the golf course where James O'Flaherty worked as a steward. By his late teens, young O'Flaherty had a scratch handicap and a scholarship to a teacher training college.

However, in 1918 he enrolled at Mungret College, a Jesuit college in County Limerick dedicated to preparing young men for missionary priesthood. Normally, students ranged from 14 to 18 years of age. At the time when O'Flaherty came in, he was a bit older than most of the students, about 20. The college allowed for some older people to come in if they had been accepted by a bishop who would pay for them.

O'Flaherty's sponsor was the Bishop of Cape Town, Cornelius O'Reilly, in whose diocese he would be posted after ordination, a big step for a young man who had never stepped foot outside of Munster. At the time when O'Flaherty was in Mungret, there was a lot of conflict in Ireland. He was posted to Rome in 1922 to finish his studies and was ordained on 20 December 1925. He would never join his diocese. Instead, he stayed to work for the Holy See, serving as a Vatican diplomat in Egypt, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Czechoslovakia. In 1934, he was appointed Monsignor.

World War II

In the early years of World War II, O'Flaherty toured prisoner of war (POW) camps in Italy and tried to find out about prisoners who had been reported missing in action. If he found them alive, he tried to reassure their families through Radio Vatican. When Italy changed sides in 1943, thousands of British POWs were released;; however, when Germany imposed an occupation over Italy, they were in danger of recapture. Some of them, remembering visits by O'Flaherty, reached Rome and asked him for help. Others went to the Irish Embassy to the Holy See, the only English-­speaking embassy to remain open in Rome during the war. Delia Murphy, who was the wife of the ambassador and in her day a well-­known ballad singer, was one of those who helped O'Flaherty.

O'Flaherty did not wait for permission from his superiors. He recruited the help of other priests (including two young New Zealanders Fathers Owen Snedden and John Flanagan), two agents working for the Free French, François de Vial and Yves Debroise, and even Communists and a Swiss count. One of his aides was British Major Sam Derry, a POW escapee. Derry along with British officers and escaped POWs Lieutenants Furman and Simpson, and Captain Byrnes, a Canadian, were responsible for the security and operational organization. O'Flaherty also kept contact with Sir D'Arcy Osborne, British Ambassador to the Holy See and his butler John May (whom O'Flaherty described as "a genius ... the most magnificent scrounger"). O'Flaherty and his allies concealed 4,000 escapees, mainly Allied soldiers and Jews, in flats, farms and convents. One of the first hideouts was beside the local SS headquarters. O'Flaherty and Derry coordinated all this. When outside the Vatican, O'Flaherty wore various disguises. The German occupiers tried to stop him and eventually they found out that the leader of the network was a priest. SS attempts to assassinate him failed. They learned his identity, but could not arrest him inside the Vatican. When the German ambassador revealed this to O'Flaherty, he began to meet his contacts on the stairs of the St. Peter's Basilica.

Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Kappler, the head of the SS Sicherheitsdienst and Gestapo in Rome learned of O'Flaherty's actions;; he ordered a white line painted on the pavement at the opening of St. Peter's Square (signifying the border between Vatican City and Italy), stating that the priest would be killed if he crossed it. Ludwig Koch, head of the neo-­Fascist Italian police in Rome often spoke of his intention to torture O'Flaherty before executing him, if he ever fell into his hands.

Several others, including priests, nuns and lay people, worked in secret with O'Flaherty, and even hid refugees in their own private homes around Rome. Among these were Augustinian Maltese Fathers, Egidio Galea, Aurelio Borg, Ugolino Gatt and Brother Robert Pace of the Brothers of Christian Schools. Another person who contributed significantly to this operation was the Malta-­born widow Chetta Chevalier, who hid some refugees in her house with her children, and was lucky to escape detection. Jewish religious services were conducted in the Basilica di San Clemente, which was under Irish diplomatic protection, under a painting of Tobias.

When the Allies arrived in Rome in June 1944, 6,425 of the escapees were still alive. O'Flaherty demanded that German prisoners be treated properly as well. He took a plane to South Africa to meet Italian POWs and to Jerusalem to visit Jewish refugees. Of the 9,700 Jews in Rome, 1,007 had been shipped to Auschwitz. The rest were hidden, 5,000 of them by the official Church − 3,000 in Castel Gandolfo, 200 or 400 (estimates vary) as "members" of the Palatine Guard and some 1,500 in monasteries, convents and colleges. The remaining 3,700 were hidden in private homes.

At the time of the liberation of Rome, O'Flaherty's and Major Sam Derry's organization was caring for 3,925 escapees and men who had succeeded in evading arrest. Of these 1,695 were British, 896 South African, 429 Russian, 425 Greek and 185 American. The remainder were from 20 different nations. This does not include Jews and sundry other men and women who were in O'Flaherty's strictly personal care.

Post-­War

After the war Hugh O'Flaherty received a number of awards including Commander of the Order of the British Empire and the US Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm. He was also honored by Canada and Australia. He refused to use the lifetime pension that Italy had given him. In the 1950s, the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, in the form proposed by the now-­sainted Mary Faustina Kowalska, was under a ban from the Vatican. It was O'Flaherty who, as Notary, signed the document that notified Catholics of the ban.

O'Flaherty regularly visited his old nemesis Colonel Herbert Kappler (the former SS chief in Rome) in prison, month after month, being Kappler's only visitor. In 1959, Kappler converted to Catholicism and was baptized by O'Flaherty.

In 1960, O'Flaherty suffered a serious stroke during Mass and was forced to return to Ireland. Shortly before his first stroke in 1960, he was due to be confirmed as the Papal Nuncio to Tanzania. He moved to Cahersiveen to live with his sister, at whose home he died on 30 October 1963, aged 65. He was buried in the cemetery of the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen. There is a grove of Hugh O'Flaherty Trees in the Killarney National Park.

O'Flaherty was portrayed by Gregory Peck in the 1983 television film, The Scarlet and the Black, which follows the exploits of O'Flaherty from the German occupation of Rome to its liberation by the Allies. He was

also the second principal character in a radio play by Robin Glendinning on Kappler's time seeking asylum in the Vatican, entitled The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican, which was first broadcast on 30 November 2006 on Radio 4, with Wolf Kahler as Kappler.

Irish Diplomacy: The ability to tell a man to go to hell so that he looks forward to making the trip.

Irish Humor The phone rings and Father O’Reilly answers. An official voice on the other end of the line says: “Is this Father O’Reilly?” “That it tis.”

“This is the Revenue Service. Will you please help us?” “I'll try.”

“Do you know a Seamus O’Doul?” “I do.”

“Does he attend your service?” “He does.”

“Did he make a very large donation to your Church?” “He will.”

The Craic Session is at Meg O’Malley’s! As always, the Craic is at Meg O’Malley’s on the first Tuesday of the month, between five and six-­thirty PM., we celebrate all things Irish: literature, music, history, stories, and folk lore. It is a wonderful time for those interested in Irish culture to meet up with each other and share a pint or two.

Following the presentation, traditional Irish music begins around 6 PM inside the pub. We hope to see you there.

Meg O’Malley’s: 812 E. New Haven, Melbourne, Florida

Phone: (321) 952-­5510

Irish Road Bowling Road Bowling (Ból an bhóthair) is a sport in which competitors hurl a metal ball along a country road. The fewest throws to the finish line wins. The sport has been traced to the 1600s when Irish patriots pilfered English cannonballs at night and rolled them down country roads by the light of a full moon. In 1863, the 23rd Illinois Infantry (Mulligan’s Irish Brigade) built a fort in Petersburg, WV. As a diversion, the Irish troops rolled cannonballs along what is now Route 50. Since 1995, the West Virginia Irish Road Bowling Association has conducted tournaments on Route 50 in nearby West Union. Many AOH Divisions also conduct Irish Road Bowling tournaments.

*If any Brother knows of a Practicing Catholic of Irish descent 16 years or older, please ask them to join our Order and give them an application to the AOH so we can have our newly formed division

grow. Let us strive to be the biggest and best Division in the State of Florida. *

“Ireland Unfree Shall Never Be At Peace”

Support a United Ireland

“Tis a Blessing to be Irish, But it is an Honor to be a Hibernian”

Irish Blessing

May the friendships you make be those which endure and

All of your Grey clouds be small ones for sure.

And trusting in Him to Whom we all pray,

May a song fill your heart every step of the way.

We Want Your Input We really don’t want to miss anything or leave anything out that should be in the newsletter. So please if you have any suggestions for the newsletter or if you feel something should have been in the newsletter and we missed it please contact any Divisional Officer with any or all suggestions.

Pray for Peace in Ireland and throughout the world!

We are all so blessed to live in such a great country where we have the freedom to practice our Catholic faith without fear. It is because of the

bravery of those in our Armed Forces that we have this freedom;; please remember them and their families who have given up so much for our country and to protect our freedom, and please keep them in your prayers and ask God to keep them safe and out of harm’s way.

As always, please remember to say an extra prayer for our wounded warriors and their families.

Trivia FOR THE WELL ROUNDED HIBERNIAN Ø In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either

sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, “'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.” (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint)

Ø The Titanic was built at what Irish Shipyard? – Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

We ask that you always remember and live our motto of

“Friendship, Unity & Christian Charity”