Michael O'Flanagan

Early life and education

In both 1845 and 1879 the poorest in society, as they faced starvation, were forced to bear the brunt of the recession as Landlords, supported by the British State, refused to stop food exports or reduce rent. Indeed many landlords tried to use both crises to evict tenants into destitution and starvation in order to replace them with more profitable ranches while continuing to export food abroad.

Fundraising in the United States

Gaelic League Envoy

I enclose my rough outline of plan of organisation. It will need a good deal of criticism in regard to detail. My object was to get money in as quickly as possible so that we might get on with the work to hand. You would need somebody who has made a study of organisation methods to consider it carefully before adoption.

I think myself that the Sinn Féin organisation will now spread through the country if vigorously pressed from headquarters. Get the Sinn Féin Executive to send out copies of the rules to the principal men amongst the local committees of North Roscommon. If Sinn Féin spreads rapidly the Irish Alliance will not be needed. However, there is no time to lose.

Cliffoney

Now, the local police were stationed across the road from the church, and the sergeant and five men attended Mass regularly, occupying first row of seats. The sergeant, whose name was Perry, called on Father Michael to lay off the agitating or he would have to take action. Father Michael responded on the next Sunday by calling on the police to resign. Sergeant Perry took out his notebook and took down everything....

The Cloonerco Bog Fight

On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June 1915, a holiday of obligation, the congregation at the 12.30 pm mass were requested by O’Flanagan to remain after mass. He wished to say somethng about the local turfbanks.

An evidence of the ubiquitous role of the RIC is that a Sergeant Perry also remained behind to note in detail what O'Flanagan had to say. It was very direct, very simple: people were sick of promises and of the injunctions of MPs to keep quiet in the hope that when the war was over home rule would be given.

Again we had a public meeting at the Cliffoney crossroads. One of the corners was occupied by the Police Barracks. At the beginning of the meeting none of the police were present. Before commencing to speak, I sent a messenger to the barracks asking the sergeant and his men to come out and witness what I had to say. When they made their appearance, I asked them in the presence of the people, to take down my exact words, so that they might be able to quote me correctly this time.

The Father O'Flanagan Hall

A new school was opened in Cliffoney shortly after I went there. Thus the old school building which stood at the southwest corner of Cliffoney crossroads became vacant. The building itself belonged to Mr. Ashley, the Landlord. I wrote to Mr. Ashley and asked him to give the old school building for a parish hall. He was quite willing to give it, but the schoolmaster refused to give up the key. For years he had used the little playground of the school as a kitchen garden, and had driven the school children onto the public road. During the time that I was in Cliffoney the schoolmaster refused to give up the key. Some of the Irish Volunteers wished to break into the building by force, but in view of the fact that we had the other fight of the bog on our hands, I thought it was better to restrain them and do one thing at a time.

Afterwards, the building was renovated, gaily decorated and painted in green, white and gold and made a Sinn Fêin hall. When opportunity presented it was an instruction and training hall for the Volunteers. It was burned In October, 1920, by British forces.

O'Donovan Rossa funeral

For a while Tom was considering who he would select to deliver the oration at the graveside, and finally decided on P. H. Pearse as the best available orator. It was a choice between Pearse and Father Michael O'Flanagan.

At the present time, nationality is in the ascendant. Its stock has gone up in the market. Perhaps some of the bidders are hypocrites, but the fact that they are compelled to bid shows that nationality counts for a great deal in the world today.
But the men of Ireland should make it clear that the principles of nationality are no less sacred by the shores of the Atlantic than they are along the slopes of the Carpathians, or by the shores of the Danube; that if we have great powers in the world today who profess that they are fighting for the liberty of small nationalities, and that if these powers are not sincere in their professions, that we shall do our part to tear the mask of hypocrisy from their faces.

Sligo Tillage meeting

In O’Flanagan’s view, Russell’s plea for an increase in grain production meant no more than a small respite in the case of shortage. ‘Instead of commencing to starve on the 5th of January 1917, we shall be able to keep body and soul together for fifteen days more.’

Clearly O’Flanagan did not expect his proposal that a million a day be devoted to tillage in Ireland and England would pass into effect. And so he recommended people to ensure that famine was kept from their own doors. They should ignore the Board of Agriculture and adopt their own remedy..... They should ‘Stick to the oats.’ This call has ever since been associated with the curate of Cliffoney.

O’Flanagan’s speech ended with a rousing call: ‘The famine of 1847 would never have been written across the pages of history if the men of that day were men enough to risk death rather than part with their oat crop. Let each farmer keep at least as much oats on hand to carry himself and his family through in case of necessity till next years harvest.’

The Cliffoney Rebellion

Crossna

I regret exceedingly that I find it necessary - in the interests of religion, ecclesiastical discipline and good order - to withdraw from you as I do hereby and until further notice, permission to preach anywhere in this diocese: - as also to celebrate mass outside the parish of Ardcarne without my permission in writing......

Finally I must forbid you to deliver any public lecture or address, or to remain a night outside the parish of Ardcarne without my special permission in writing.

We can point out that Ireland is a nation with a definite geographical boundary… National and geographical boundaries scarcely ever coincide; geography would make one nation of Spain and Portugal history has made two nations of them. Geography did its best to make one nation of Norway and Sweden; history has succeeded in making two nations of them. If a man were to contrast the political map of Europe out of its physical map he would find himself groping in the dark. Geography has worked hard to make one nation out of Ireland; history has worked against it.

The island of Ireland and the national unit of Ireland simply do not coincide. In the last analysis the test of nationality is the wish of the people… The Unionists of Ulster have never transferred their love and allegiance to Ireland. They may be Irelanders, using Ireland as a geographical term, but they are not Irish in the national sense…

We claim the right to decide what is to be our nation. We refuse them the same right. After three hundred years England has begun to despair of making us love her by force. And so we are anxious to start where England left off. And we are going to compel Antrim and Down to love us by force.

“I recognise that there are one million people on this island who are British and let me state here and now that as a proud Irish Republican I not only recognise the unionist and British identity, I respect it. People who think that a new Ireland, a united Ireland can be built without unionist participation, involvement and leadership are deluded… The war is over and we are in the process of building a new Republic.”

Easter Week

Next day the Insurrection broke out in Dublin. All week our little Company of Volunteers awaited orders. They were ready to undertake anything, but the orders never came. There were no Irish Volunteers organised nearer than Ballaghadereen, Tobercurry and Ballymote. The general sympathy of the people of Crosna was of course, with the men of Easter Week. The same was true of every place where the propaganda of the Irish Volunteers had been carried on. And even in places where people were left to their own instinct, the only criticism was the criticism of an old man from a neighbouring district, who said “Ah! Poor fellows, they made the burst too soon.”

For months it seemed as if Easter Week might be followed by a period of deep despair. Would the inspiration of the example of the men of Easter Week, or the terror caused by their defeat, have the greater effect upon the mind of the country? For nine long months this question received no clear and convincing answer. In January, 1917, and opportunity of solving the doubt occurred at the by-election. A candidate was carefully chosen whose election would be a clear proof that the hearts and minds of the people of Ireland were with the men of Easter Week.

Some of us do not like the quasi apology for the execution of the Irish Volunteer Leaders, insinuated in the fourth paragraph but we are willing to waive that point for the purpose of doing our part for Roger Casement. The men who were executed in Dublin are to us martyrs & heroes, & the Government that ordered their execution are guilty of a great crime.

The Election of the Snows

That night I went to Dublin by motor car. The road from Boyle to Carrick had been well cleared of snow and the fall in the country east of the Shannon was not great. However, the night was intensely cold. I sat in the front seat of the car until we reached Mullingar.

We stopped for a while in Carrick, Longford and Mullingar and with this advantage added to the protection of the windscreen, I had a tolerable time of it up to there. But in Mullingar, I took pity on Arthur Griffith. He was one of those in the back seat. He still wore the beard which he had grown during his time in prison.

The valleys through which we passed were filled with a bitterly cold frozen fog and Arthur was covered with ice like a picture of some man on an Arctic expedition. As soon as we passed Maynooth we all got out and ran through the snow for over a mile in order to get our blood in circulation. When we reached Dublin it was five o'clock in the morning.

The Plunkett Convention

The reflected glory of his sons, together with some fiery speeches of his own and a genuine distaste for any sort of compromise made Plunkett the temporary spokesman of the radical republicans. There can be little doubt that many of them exploited him. On the other hand, new bonds were established, and the Roscommon campaign brought together three very different figures—Plunkett, O'Flanagan and J. J. O'Kelly—who over the next two decades would come to represent irreconcilable, fundamentalist republicanism.

Sinn Féin revival 1917

Vice-President of Sinn Féin

When the Sinn Féin leader finished his speech and sat down, O'Flanagan of Crossna commented that what was represented on stage was ‘Ireland a Nation’ and it served as a symbol both of hope and confidence ‘to see united in conference men like John Dillon and William O’Brien, with that brand that was snatched from the burning of Easter week and saved by Almighty God to be the hero leader of the young blood of Ireland’.

Anticipating such action, the Standing Committee of Sinn Féin nominated substitutes to carry on the movement during the enforced, and what may be, the temporary exile of our leaders. The country may rest assured that no matter how many leaders may be arrested, there will be men and women to take their places. All that we need is to continue to follow the latest advice of de Valera, namely, to remain calm and confident. - Michael O'Flanagan, C.C.

East Cavan By-election

.......and just then, miracle of miracles, Sinn Féin found its champion. He burst on the scene, the greatest orator since O’Connell, a priest - Father O’Flanagan. He went through Cavan like a torchlight procession. Young Sinn Féiners were no longer stumbling.
Sinn Féin had made a happy choice of candidate - Arthur Griffith. He was not dependent on “put him in to get him out”. O’Flanagan took party speakers head on: the phoney German plot was a first step in preparing the, ground for conscription. His powerful voice fairly bungled his message. The battle against conscription would be decided not on the floor of the British House of Commons, but here on the fields of Cavan.

The police also kept a close eye on proceedings and in some places monitored the movement of motor cars, noting the vehicles’ numbers and checking drivers’ licences. In one instance, in Bailieboro, a car was stopped in the early morning bearing the inscription on its number plate ‘I.R. 1916’. When quizzed, the occupants produced a permit signed ‘M. O’Flanagan, C.C.’.

Fr. O'Flanagan spoke five or six times a day: the election workers were out at dawn, and were still at it in village and townland and hillside farm when darkness fell. They did it. Arthur Griffith, even in that Hibernian stronghold, got 3,785 to the Irish Party’s O’Hanlon 2,581.

The insults that are now poured on Fr. O’Flanagan will do him no harm. A grateful and warm-hearted people will only cling more tightly to him in the hour of his affliction. And whether your Lordship took dictation from non-Catholics such as Lord Middleton, or from influential Catholics, such as the Anglicised Sir Thomas Stafford, it matters little.

When these calumniators are dead and gone, and when their names shall only be recalled with horror and disgust, the name of the patriot priest of Crossna will shine as bright and clear on the pages of Irish history as the morning star that circles the heavens, pointing out to future generations of Irish men and women the road to glory, to honour and to virtue.

And as a protest against your Lordship’s action, we have closed Crossna church, and it will remain closed till Fr. O’Flanagan is restored to the mission. Your Lordship may look on our action as extreme, but pray remember the awful malediction conveyed in those dreadful words: “Woe to the man whom history shall accuse and whom posterity shall judge.” To this tribunal we leave your Lordship’s action and our own.

Freedom of Sligo

General Election 1918

Fr. O'Flanagan's involvement in the 1918 campaign reproduced on larger scale the "Election of the Snows" in North Roscommon. He travelled from Cork to Donegal, from the Falls Road to Wexford Town in the four-week election campaign. Sometimes he spoke five or six times a day. Everywhere—or, rather, almost everywhere—he was acclaimed with enthusiasm.

At a rally in Ballaghadereen, the home town of John Dillon, O'Flanagan contrasted the record of the Irish Party with that of 'the men of Easter Week who really saved Ireland'. On the one side were those who strove to enlist the young men of Ireland in the British Army. On the other side were the insurgents of 1916 as well as some old Fenians and 'some mad curates with them'.

While the leaders of 1916 were dead or in prison, their followers were free. While the leader of the Irish Party and his two sons were very much alive 'his followers dead in the Dardanelles or in Flanders…' The protest of 1916 had ensured that many thousands resisted enlistment…

Chaplain to the First Dáil

Raid on O'Flanagan's rooms

The door of the Curates' house was opened by Fr. Carney, the other curate, and the Auxiliaries proceeded to search Fr. O'Flanagan's rooms. They pulled the place asunder and read all his letters. O'Flanagan was interested in the derivation of Irish place names and, for that reason, he used to buy old Ordnance survey maps at auctions. He had shortly before bought some belonging to the County Surveyor who had died and pieces of these had been cut out apparently by the Surveyor for his own purpose.

The Auxiliaries came to the conclusion that Fr. O'Flanagan had cut them out for the I.R.A. for the purpose of attacks on the Crown forces. They told me if they got Fr. O'Flanagan they would give him the same fate as they had given to Fr. Griffin. They also told me to leave the town at once, and that my being a woman would not save me from being put up against a wall and shot. During all this time Fr. Carney remained in his own rooms and was not molested.

"For miles around the scene the male population fled in terror and have not since returned," the County Inspector wrote on 31 October. "Splendid discipline was maintained by the forces but notwithstanding this some reprisals followed," the Inspector reported. "The houses of some leading suspects were burned as well as the Father O'Flanagan Sinn Féin Hall at Cliffoney".

These papers were placed here Nov 1st 1920 by Rev. M. O'Flanagan & Sister Gerard and Michael McDermot who was in charge of the electric engine of the Laundry, in order to save them from the raids of Lloyd George's Auxiliaries & so-called police.
M. O'Flannagáin.

Telegrams to Lloyd George

I thank you for your reply: To a proposal for peace you offer only discussion reserving the right to pursue the present policy of vengeance. Obviously such an offer could not be considered. Offer something definite. We ask for self determination; you say we must not have it. What then can we have, if something be offered, say Dominion Home Rule as defined by Asquith & Henderson we will discuss it with you.

Republican Envoy

It has been said of Sinn Féin that Arthur Griffith designed it, was the great architect; that Father O’Flanagan was the builder, constructing it into one harmonious whole; and that to de Valera was left the guiding of the machinery....

Australia

In March 1923, two representatives of the Irish republican movement arrived in Australia. They had travelled from the United States, and they were on British passports which had been issued in 1921. The Irish Envoys as they became known were Father Michael O’Flanagan and John Joseph O’Kelly. These were not men in the front rank of Irish republicans but neither were they far from the top.

Return to Ireland 1925

Referring to Denis Barry, a republican who had died on hunger strike in 1923 and whose funeral was barred from churches in his native Cork, Fr. O'Flanagan declared "'I would rather go to heaven with Denis Barry than go to hell at head of a procession of high ecclesiastics.'

De Valera tended to keep his friendship with Mgr Hagan a closely guarded secret in the 1920s. When the former visited Rome prior to the establishment of Fianna Fail in 1926 he was secretly housed in the rector's rooms in the Irish College and convinced by Hagan of the need to found a new party. Hagan, who was a regular visitor to the de Valera household when he was home on annual holidays, was also a substantial contributor to the coffers of the Fianna Fail party upon its foundation. He was a prelate who saw no contradiction in rendering to God and to Caesar.

Sinn Féin split 1926

That it is incompatible with the fundamental principles of Sinn Féin as it is injurious to the honour of Ireland, to send representatives into any usurping legislature set up by English law in Ireland.

had been made tools of by de Valera for working up an organisation in America for the followers of de Valera's policy to profit by. As soon as he and Sceilg had gotten things well under was in the USA, a slick little politician was sent over.

In the part I took in the fight for the Republic in Ireland I was never afraid of the other side. I was not afraid of Redmond or Dillon, of Bishop or of Pope, but I was always more or less afraid of the people who were on my own side. I had reason to be, for many of them wavered. But there has always been this encouraging feature, that the wavering was greatest amongst the leaders, and least amongst the rank and file of the people.

Inventions

A recent issue of the "New York Herald Tribune" contains an interesting article by Mr. John Elliott describing submarine "specs" invented by Rev. M. O'Flanagan, which enable swimmers and bathers to see below the surface of the water as well as they can above.

Mr. Elliott says "this invention is the result of almost twenty years' intermittent labour, following an inspiration that came to him while he was visiting the Catalina Islands, off Lr. California, in 1908."

Ordnance Survey letters

Between 1927 and 1932 he produced about 50 typescript editions of the Ordnance Survey Letters for each of the 29 counties for which they exist. These were typed in the Royal Irish Academy by Mary Nelson, Margaret Staunton and Maura Riddick. Beginning in 1932, Patrick Byrne typed the Name Books in the Ordnance Survey Office for O'Flanagan at a rate of 30 pages a day. A small edition of about six copies was bound in 150 volumes.

I was without means of support. I was compelled to subsist on the hospitality of my friends. You here in America took the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of my Ordination two years ago to present to me the very substantial sum of seven thousand dollars.

I did not care to accept this gift in a narrow personal sense. It has enabled me to safeguard some of the historical materials lying neglected in one of our Dublin Libraries. John O'Donovan, the famous editor of the Annals of the Four Masters, was one of the greatest Irish Scholars eighty or ninety years ago. He went around nearly every district in Ireland and collected the historical traditions handed down by word of mouth amongst the people. He spent seven years at this work.

President of Sinn Féin

The two vice-presidents elected were the two men of opposite views who formed the nucleus of the provisional committee. The two secretaries elected were Austin Stack and Darell Figgis. The two treasurers were Laurence Ginnell and William Cosgrave. The highest votes for membership of the standing committee were given to John MacNeill and Cathal Brugha.

When the so-called treaty came, one of the original vice-presidents of the organization became its foremost champion. The other remained on the side of the Republic. One of the secretaries became an eloquent spokesman of the Free State cause, the other fought against it to his last breath.

One of the treasurers became for many years the leader of the Free State majority party. The other died in harness in the ranks of the Republic. Of the two who came first in the list for the Standing Committee, the name of one will go down into Irish history as the outstanding hero martyr of the Republican cause; that of the other as the leading intellectual champion of the policy of compromise. We only had one president. The president found it impossible to divide himself in two.

Spanish Civil War

In Ireland the issue was presented in stark contrasts. Intermediate shades received little toleration. The Catholic church, arguably coming to the height of its conservatism, portrayed the war as a struggle between Christ and anti-Christ. Religion was under attack. Christian civilisation was mortally imperilled by the poison of communism. Innumerable sermons dinned home the dubious tenet that whatever opposed the onrush of communism was good. A joint pastoral of the Irish bishops firmly supported Franco.

Because of his participation in a Radio Athlone broadcast enactment of the meeting of January 21, 1919, of the First Dáil in the Round Room of the Mansion House, Father O'Flanagan was expelled from Sinn Féin. He had joined Sean T. O'Kelly, Senator E. J. Duggan, Robert C. Barton and Piarais Breaslaí in a reconstruction. The Sinn Féin journal An Dé, declared that his participation automatically ended his connection.

In a spirited reply the priest declared "something more than an order from the Standing Committee of Sinn Féin would be required to prevent me repeating publicly before the people of Ireland the part the part I took on January 21, 1919." A last minute meeting of Sinn Féin had forbidden attendance, but the letter had not reached Father O'Flanagan.

I've been thinking recently where the Catholic Church has failed. It seems to me we have omitted the whole of Christ's teaching. We are introduced to Christ as a babe, absolutely overshadowed by His mother. Then you hear almost nothing about Him until His death. If I were to write a biography of a mere man, his birth and then his death, what kind of biography would that be—nothing about the object of his life?

Death and funeral

Dear Bernie, Good bye to you and to dear dear Cliffoney. I am dying with a very special love of the people in my inmost heart. I'll be waiting in heaven to greet the Cliffoney people, especially those who prayed for me in front of the church door.
Fr. Michael O'Flanagan.