Mags GarganThe life and legacy of Edward J. Flanagan, was the topic of a public lecture given at the Summerhill College in Sligo by Thomas Lynch, historian and director of community programmes at Boystown, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
Fr Flanagan was born in Leabeg, Ballymoe, Co. Roscommon in 1886 and was a student at the College of the Immaculate Conception from 1901 to 1904.
Mr Lynch introduced those gathered to the life story of the college’s famous past student from his early life in Ireland and his journey to America, to his formation as a priest and his work with the homeless which eventually led him to found the now world-famous Boystown movement.
Fr Flanagan was declared Servant of God in 2012 and in June this year the process to make him a saint advanced to the Congregation for Saints in Rome.
Summerhill College Principal, Paul Keogh expressed the “pride of the entire college community in having Fr Flanagan as a past student”.