by Jim Ross

Created on: August 21, 2008   Last Updated: October 19, 2008

In the past, as Remembrance Day nears, I have always written something on the loss of souls endured by dark forces, or made a video showing those atrocities depicting the many evils than mankind is capable of, and still does! This time, however, I have decided to focus on another aspect.

I am going to relate to you the story of a man, a very special man, in my opinion. He is being honoured in Yad Vashem holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, this year, in October, where a tree will be planted in his name, forty-years after his death, remembering his many good deeds to humanity, in a time of great pain.

For his deeds, at, and after the time, he received two notations from friends in the guise of nick names, and they were both well received and intended. He was called, firstly: "The Pimpernel of the Vatican" and secondly; "The Oskar Schindler of Killarney." This is the story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a man who not only outwitted the German Army in Rome, but he was also the Priest who became a frustrating 'thorn' in the side of SS Gestapo Chief Colonel Herbert Kappler.

It is nice to see that after all these years, recognition is coming to him from different directions. The Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Authority also plans to confer the title, "Righteous Among Nations" on Monsignor O'Flaherty, who is the first Irishman to receive this honour, in appreciation of having saved the lives of thousands of Rome's Jews from the Holocaust.

There is no doubt in my mind that the story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty is a story that will inspire many people for years to come.

As a young man of the cloth he was posted to Rome in 1922 - the same year that Mussolini's dictatorship began. By 1934 he was a Monsignor at the Vatican, devoted to doing good deeds and to playing golf. He was, in fact, the amateur golfing champion of Italy, and as such he regularly played golf with Count Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law, and with ex King Alfonso of Spain. He was also a champion boxer and an excellent handball player and hurler.

During the occupation of Rome Monsignor O'Flaherty saved over 4,000 British and American soldiers lives and Roman Jews from torture and death at the hands of the Gestapo, and he did this without the knowledge of the Vatican. It is also ironic to think that after all this time; the only memorial of his good deeds comes via a feature film - "The Scarlet and the Black" which starred Gregory Peck as Monsignor O'Flaherty and Christopher Plummer as Colonel Herbert Kappler.

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