Cork village to unveil mural of famous son who saved thousands of lives during Second World War

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, a native of Kiskeam in Duhallow, and based in the Vatican during the Nazi occupation, helped save the lives of more than 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews

Putting the finishing touches to the mural of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty in his native village of Kiskeam, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

The finishing touches have been made to a giant mural in a North Cork village dedicated to its most famous son, who was nicknamed 'The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican'.

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, a native of Kiskeam in Duhallow, served as a priest in Rome's curia during the Nazi occupation. He played a key role in the resistance, helping to save the lives of more than 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews, through his Rome Escape line. 

Post-war, as news of his exploits became known, Msgr O'Flaherty received numerous awards. He was portrayed by Gregory Peck in the 1983 television film The Scarlet and the Black. The workings of the Rome Escape Line and O'Flaherty's commanding role also formed the basis of two recent books by best-selling author Joseph O'Connor —  In my Father's House and Ghosts of Rome.

The mural depicts the Vatican, where Msgr O’Flaherty was based, and whose neutral state he used to help save escaped Allied soldiers and on-the-run Jews being hunted down by the Gestapo.

Gregory Peck in the lead role as Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty in a scene from 'The Scarlet and The Black'.

It has been created on the gable wall of a house in Kiskeam, the village in which O’Flaherty was born in 1898.

Unfortunately, the house where the famous priest was born no longer exists, but a local family, the Cullinanes, provided a local organisation with the gable wall of a property in the village for the mural.

It is the brainchild of a special committee set up by the Kiskeam Development Association, which will put a QR code alongside it so visitors can find out about Msgr O’Flaherty’s extraordinary life.

The committee’s chairman Bernard Moynihan received funding for the project from Cork County Council.

Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty.

The mural was painted by Pat Cronin, an art teacher from Dublin who is originally from Kiskeam, and who worked 12-hour shifts to complete it.

Mr Moynihan said it was part of a planned bigger project to provide a historical walking tour around the village.

“We will have an official unveiling of it and we will be inviting Msgr Hugh O’Flaherty’s relatives to it. He has hundreds of relatives in North Cork and all over the world. 

"The official unveiling is likely to happen in either late September or early October. This tribute is only fitting as he is without doubt Duhallow’s most famous son,” Mr Moynihan said.

Msgr O'Flaherty returned to his native Ireland and lived with his sister in Co Kerry until his death, aged 65, in 1963. There is also a mural dedicated to him in Caherciveen.