Madam, – According to Patsy McGarry (Home News, March 7th) the parishoners of north Sligo baricaded the church until Fr Michael O’Flanagan, the turf-cutters’ champion, was returned to the parish. In fact Fr O’Flanagan was never allowed back to Cliffoney as the Bishop of Elphin, Bishop Coyne, transferred him to the parish of Crossna for his role in the agitation for turbary rights, which became know as Cloonerco Bog Fight. The locals marched to Sligo to the Bishop’s palace pleading for the return of Fr O’Flanagan and when this was refused by Bishop Coyne they barricaded Cliffoney parish church, nailing the doors and windows shut, thus preventing a replacement from entering.
They guarded the church day and night reciting the Rosary outside on Sundays for more than six months until a replacement priest arrived at Christmas who promised to be a “good Irishman”.
Fr O’Flanagan was conferred with the Freedom of Sligo town in 1918 and he still lives on in the minds and hearts of many people in north Sligo and elsewhere. We in the Fr Michael O’Flanagan branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann are proud to bear his name in fostering the music, song and dance of area. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I wish to add to Patsy McGarry’s informative article (Home News, March 7th) on the tributes paid at Glasnevin cemetery to Roscommon notables, in particular Fr Michael O’Flanagan (1876-1942). Fr O’Flanagan was indeed a stalwart defender of the cause of Republican Spain in the 1930s. He defied the pro-Franco efforts of Eoin O’Duffy’s Irish Brigade and those of the Catholic hierarchy. O’Flanagan stood up for the Connolly Column that fought in Spain against fascism with the International Brigades. At a public meeting in Abbey Street in December 1938, he welcomed back to Dublin the final detachment of survivors of the Connolly Column, which included Michael O’Riordan of Cork – later to become general secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland.
I note in O'Riordan's Connolly Column: the Irishmen who fought for the Spanish Republic(1979) that he lists another Roscommon man, Andrew Flanagan, among the Irish survivors of the International Brigades. As for Fr O'Flanagan, the Irish State rewarded his support for such causes by placing his name with O'Riordan's on the Military Intelligence Branch's Communists Alphabetical Lists, now lodged at the Military Archives. It is illustrative to note that Army Intelligence recorded O'Flanagan's research address rather than that of his residence. The entry reads: "Father Flanagan, c/o National Library, Kildare Street". – Yours, etc,