A lifesize statue of Father Edward Flanagan, founder of Boystown at Omaha, Nebraska, in 1917, will be erected next Saturday in his native Ballymoe, Co Galway. The priest was born in 1886 at the nearby parish of Leabeg, Co Roscommon.
He came to international prominence in 1938 following the release of the film, Boystown, in which he was played by Spencer Tracy. It also starred Mickey Rooney. The film won Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor in 1939.
Spencer Tracy later donated his Oscar to Boystown, where it remains.
Father Flanagan attended Summerhill College in Sligo and was ordained at Innsbruck, Austria, in 1912. His family emigrated to the US in 1904. After ordination he worked with the homeless in Nebraska, where most of his family then lived.
In 1917, with a borrowed $90, he opened a home in Omaha for homeless boys. It was the beginning of a unique and ultimately very successful experiment. The boys learned trades and effectively ran the "town" themselves under Father Flanagan's leadership.
Boystown was designated a village by the state of Nebraska in 1936. By the time he died in 1948 the priest was a revered figure internationally. His remains are interred at the Dowd Memorial chapel in Boystown.
Today in the US there are 17 such "towns", catering for 35,000 boys and girls, with another 1.5 million children being assisted through Boystown services.
The statue was being erected at the Father Flanagan Memorial Centre in Ballymoe over the weekend, and will be unveiled next Saturday. It was donated by alumni of Boystown as an expression of gratitude to the priest.
A group of about 40 such past residents of Boystown are expected in Ballymoe for the coming weekend's events.
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