Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church
FACILITIES:
The Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church of the Holy Cross is the the only church in Ireland to be called after a layman. This church was built, and named with special papal permission, after the great statesman Daniel O’Connell, a lay person, neither a saint, nor a deity, but a man who worked tirelessly for Catholic emancipation by way of mass movement of people, in Ireland in the 17th and 18th century. It is constructed of Northern Irish granite (Co. Down) and built in a combination of Gothic revivalist and medieval style architecture. The laying of a marble slab which serves as the cornerstone took place in 1888. This marble block is very special as it was a gift from Pope Leo XIII sourced from the catacombs in Rome.
Buried in the grounds of the church are the remains of Monsignor Hugh O’ Flaherty whose heroic life is captured on the famous Gregory Peck Film “The Scarlet and the Black”. Monsignor O’Flaherty (1898 – 1963) a Cahersiveen native was a Vatican diplomat during the second world war. During his time in the vatican O’Flaherty organised the concealment and escape of more than 5,000 people including Jews and prisoners of war from the German occupying forces without the knowledge or approval of his superiors.
