On Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, who helped Jewish people to safety in WW2... For Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to Courage In The Alleys by Joseph O'Connor above.
"On Christmas Eve, in Rome, I went for a walk – through the shadowed, cobbled backstreets that lead from the old working-class quarter of Trastevere, by the banks of the Tiber, to the Vatican.
In the houses, families were gathering. Radios played Puccini. The darkness of the alleys seemed sanctified by hope. I was thinking of Hugh O'Flaherty.
I can’t remember the first time I heard his story, but I’ve an idea it was in Listowel, County Kerry...."
First broadcast on Sunday Miscellany, RTÉ Radio 1, this essay is included in the new book Sunday Miscellany: A Selection 2018-2023, published by New Island Books.
The book has been nominated for the Irish Book Awards in the best Irish-published book category; to cast your vote, go to irishbookawards.ie
