Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty: The Vatican’s Hidden Hero

By MARIE O’LEARY

Hugh was born on 28th February 1898 in his grandmother’s house in Lisrobin, Kiskeam. His mother was Margaret Murphy and his father was James O’Flaherty from Headford in Co. Galway. His father was an RIC officer. His parents lived in Tralee but, as was the custom in those days, Margaret came home to her parent’s house in Kiskeam for the birth of her first child.

In 1909, James O’Flaherty retired from the RIC and became the steward of Deerpark Golf Club in Killarney. It was here that Hugh developed his love of golf, practically living on the golf course. By his late teens, he had a scratch handicap.

He began studying for the priesthood in Limerick in 1918. He went to Rome in 1922 to complete his studies and was ordained in Rome on 15th December, 1925. He was to be posted to Cape Town, but instead he was kept in Rome and worked as a Vatican diplomat in Egypt, Haiti and Czechoslovakia.

He was still an avid golfer and at one point was known as Italy’s amateur golfing champion. Because of his talent, he began to play regularly with some very influential members of Italian high society, such as Count Ciano, the son- in-law of Mussolini, and Alfonso XIII, the exiled King of Spain. These social connections would prove invaluable to him later. He was not just a golfer however, he was also a skilled boxer, played a good game of handball and was a decent hurler!

In the early years of the war, he started visiting the POW camps. He would take messages from the prisoners and get them broadcast on Vatican radio so that their families would know they were alive. From 1942 on he was helping prominent Jews and well-known anti-fascists, people he had known since before the war. He hid them in his friends’ houses, in monasteries and convents.

When Mussolini was overthrown in July 1943, thousands of Allied POWs were released or escaped. In September, the Germans occupied Rome and POWs were in mortal danger. Many of them, remembering O’Flaherty’s visits to the prison camps, headed to the neutral Vatican City looking for his help.

And so began the Rome Escape Line. O’Flaherty developed a network of safe houses and apartments in Rome. Aided by others, such as the British Ambassador Sir D’Arcy Osbourne, who supplied funding, and his butler, John May, who managed to find food, shoes and clothing for the escapees; O’Flaherty was able to hide huge numbers of prisoners safely. His background as a wellknown golfer provided him with legitimate access to Italian high society and safe passage around Rome and he used this as a cover for his covert activities. Within the escape network his codename was “Golf”.

Herbert Kappler, head of the SS and the Gestapo in Rome, learned of O’Flaherty’s actions and determined to stop him. He painted a white line at the entrance to St. Peter’s Square which was the border between Italy and the Vatican. He stated that O’Flaherty would be arrested or killed if he crossed it.

Despite this threat, O’Flaherty continued his work, continually outwitting Kappler. He travelled around Rome to visit refugees in various disguises, including a beggar, a postman, a nun and even a Nazi!

By war’s end, it is estimated that Monsignor O’Flaherty and his allies had saved the lives of approximately 6,500 people.

After the war, O’Flaherty remained active as a priest in Rome. He visited Kappler, the former Gestapo leader, in prison regularly. He retired to Kerry in 1960 and died in Caherciveen in 1963, aged 65.