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Father Edward J. Flanagan of Ballymoe, Co. Roscommon. Founder of Boys Town, Nebraska, USA. Father Edward J. Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, Nebraska, was born on 13th. July 1886 in Leabeg, County Roscommon. The nearest town to Leabeg is Ballymoe in County Galway and this has sometimes causes problems when it comes to ascribing a county of birth. He was the eighth child in a family of eleven and was very frail when born. As he grew older, in order to strengthen him, his father tried to keep him outdoors as much as possible, so he put him to tending the sheep and cattle on the family farm. Edward’s duty was to keep the animals from wandering into the dangerous bogs that bordered the property on two sides. This work gave him much time to think, to read and to pray. He had noticed that his father had said the rosary as he worked, so he too, began to pray. In a letter to the Republican priest Rev. Michael O'Flanagan in April 1942 he wrote: "You .. may not know that I was the little shepherd boy who took care of the cattle and the sheep. That seemed to be my job as I was the delicate member of the family and good for nothing else, and with probably a poorer brain than most of the other members of the family. I was sent away to school to study for the Priesthood, as I stated above, I wasn't much good for anything else; so my job as a shepherd boy filled in very nicely in preparation for my life's work afterward."
He
attended National School at Drimatemple (left) and
entered Summerhill College, Sligo in 1900. In 1904 he graduated and
almost immediately sailed for the United States. In the US he
enrolled in Mount Saint Mary’s
College,
Maryland and graduated from there
in June 1906. He
entered
Saint Joseph’s Seminary,
New
York in September
1906 but left in the spring
of 1907, due to
poor health. Following
Above: The remains of Drimatemple National School. (© Roscommon Historical Research. September 2008). In the Autumn of 1909 he was accepted by the Royal Imperial Leopold Frances University in Innsbruck, Austria. The high altitude of the site was good for his health so he managed to complete his studies there and was ordained with the Jesuits at Innsbruck in 1912. When he returned to Omaha that year the new Father Flanagan celebrated his first solemn High Mass at Holy Angels Church, Omaha in August. His first parish appointment was Saint Patrick’s in O’Neill, after which he was appointed Assistant Pastor to Saint Patrick’s Parish, Omaha in March of 1913. Seeing the streets of Omaha filled with unemployed migrant workers because of the great drought in the summer of 1913, he began to assist the homeless workers. In November he opened the "Workingmen’s Hotel" in downtown Omaha, where men could find shelter, a bed for the night and food. In December of 1917 he rented a building in which to house homeless and abandoned boys and give them the care, training, and education which he felt they needed and on 12 December 1917 he opened the first home for them in Dodge Street, Omaha. By this stage he had decided to spend the rest of his life saving boys from becoming misfits and recruits to the army of crime. "A thousand streets, a thousand streets and more, A thousand alleyways and country lanes, A thousand lads from Nome to Singapore, Have learned to know your face and speak your name" *
* from the poem "To Father Flanagan (May 15, 1948)" by Clifford Stevens. Used with permission.
Aerial view of "Father Flanagan Boys' Home, Boystown, Nebraska. (left) Silk Postcard by Eric Nelson News Co. Omaha, Nebraska. (No date. 1950's?) and (right) Brochure for Boys Town - Visitor Information (no date). "The old-fashioned home with its fireside companionship, its religious devotion and its close-knit family ties, is my idea of what a home should be. My father would tell me many stories that were interesting to a child - stories of adventure, of the struggle of the Irish people for independence. It was from him that I learned the great sciences of life, of examples from the lives of the saints, scholars and patriots. It was from his life that I learned the fundamentals rule of life of the great St. Benedict: 'Pray and work'." Our sincere thanks to Father Clifford J. Stevens and the Boys Town website for the information above.
A series of 8 postcards of Boys Town by Harrison Conroy of New York. 1956. |
Two of the many pictorial covers designed for the launch of the Fr. Flanagan 4 cent postage stamp by the US Postal Service on 14 July 1986.
Father Flanagan's Boys' Home Band. Boys Town, Nebraska. Silk Postcard by General Distribution Company, Omaha, Nebraska. (No date. 1950's?)
"Father Flanagan of Boys Town - A Man of Vision" by Hugh Reilly & Kevin Warneke. 196 pp paperback. (Boys Town Press). (2008).
Additional material of this nature always welcome. Please Contact us. More Books about Fr. Flanagan. (Follow this link)
More information about Fr. Flanagan. (Follow this link) Images not to scale.
"Fr. Flanagan & the Boys Town Choir". Sheet Music from Boys Town Roadshow 1938.
Left and above are some of the many postcards that exist for Fr. Flanagan and Boys Town. If you have any further examples please contact us. |
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Father Clifford Stevens is currently writing the definitive biography of Fr. Edward Flanagan and would welcome contact with anyone who has primary source material or anyone who is interested in the priest and his work. Fr. Stevens details (including email) are on the link below. We thank him sincerely for his contributions of material to this collection. For the full history of Fr. Flanagan and Boys Town, including photographs, click on the following links: Boys Town History (external link). Boys Town Press. (This link will take you to our Boys Town Press ephemera page. A link to the press is on that page). Boy's Town survives partly by patron donations. Some ephemera relating to this activity is here: Cinderella Stamps & Ephemera. |
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Campaign for the Canonization of Fr. Flanagan. In 2006 a campaign was launched in Ireland to canonise Fr. Flanagan. The campaign had already started in America. A book was launched titled "Signposts for Life. A Model for the Youth of Today". The book was launched by Mary Hanafin TD in Bushwell's Hotel in Dublin. The launch details were carried in the local newspapers in Roscommon. A small selection of items from our archive, relating to the campaign are shown below.
Left: "The Roscommon Herald" and above: "The Roscommon Champion". Both dated 18 July 2006.
"A Model for the Youth of Today" Edited by Dermot Layden. 29 page booklet on Fr. Flanagan. Illustrated in black & white. With foreword by John Lonergan, Governor of Mountjoy Prison.
Right - Two leaflets: Father Flanagan Pilgrimage. A Day of Prayer at Father Flanagan Sites Boys Town. & Movement for Canonization of Father Flanagan.
Left. Movement for the Canonization of Fr. Flanagan - Newsletter. Volume 3 Issue 1. Late Spring 2006. (We would welcome additional copies of this newsletter).
These are the items we currently have in our archive concerning Fr. Flanagan and Boys Town. If you have any material on either and would like to give it a good home please contact us.
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Prayer Card for the Canonization of Fr. Flanagan.
Bookmark with Fr. Flanagan saying and Prayer for Parents.
For more examples see our Boys Town Press page.
Images not to scale.
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Our Fr. Flanagan / Boys Town "Wish-List".
We would welcome any type of material relating to Fr. Flanagan and Boys Town, but would particularly like to get a copy of "Father Flanagan: Architect of a Dream" for our archive. We would also like to get some sample copies of "Fr. Flanagan Boys Home Journal" (1917 - ?) and "Boys Town Times" (1938 - ?).
If you have any of these please contact us. Thank you. |
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a period
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of
recuperation
he left to study at the Gregorian University in Rome
but poor health again forced him to abandon his studies. He returned
to Omaha and worked as an accountant at a Meat Packing Company.
