Ringsend's Rebel Priest, Father Flanagan

 

Patrick Flanagan was born on April 7^th 1883 in Dublin. A good student at school, he went onto study at Clonliffe College to begin the process to join the priesthood. He completed his studies at Maynooth University and in 1909 he was ordained. His first appointment as a curate was to the south city suburb of Ringsend. As a passionate believer in the Gaelic League and a supporter of the nationalist cause, he set up Fianna Phadraig in Ringsend in 1911, just two years after his arrival in the parish. According to Sean O’Shea’s Witness Statement at the Bureau of Military History, he said that he was a member of Fianna Phadraig and that their uniform was a grey shirt with an orange kerchief, blue breeches, grey puttees and a green wide-brimmed hat. He added,

‘Fianna Phadraig was a scout unit organized on similar lines to Fianna Eireann. The unit was founded by Father Pat Flanagan, C.C., Ringsend. We were if anything better trained from the military point of view than Fianna Eireann. We met the latter iii a scouting exercise on Ticknock in the summer of 1915 and proved to be the better unit on that occasion.’

The 1913 St. Patrick’s Day parade organised by the Gaelic League and conducted in ‘flashes of sunshine alternating with periods of snow’ included the participation of the Fianna Phadraig along with the Fontenoy Hurling club also from Ringsend. In July, the newspapers reported that at the ‘Aeridheacht Mor’ (Large Open Air Gathering) held in Shelbourne Park,

‘An interesting display of camp life given by Fianna Phadraig claimed much attention, while the choice selections rendered by the Artane Band, Mr. H. Lowe conducting, were thoroughly appreciated’

According to O’Shea

‘Fr. Flanagan had some liaison with "D" Coy., 3rd Battalion, the local Volunteer unit and the members of the Fianna were understood to be at the Company's service for despatch work and the like.’

But the Reverend’s involvement was more active. It was reported in the newspapers that on March 29^th 1914, before the split, Father Flanagan presided at a meeting of the National Volunteers. He would become a close confidant of many of those who would later become involved in planning the 1916 Rising.

O’Shea added in his witness statement,

‘without ever raising his voice from the pulpit he succeeded in stamping out drunkenness and loutishness from Ringsend. His chief weapon was the Fianna, a well-trained body with its own pipe band. He had a definite military outlook. He took the Fianna on winter's evenings through the history of the Boer War and showed us that that war had been imposed on a peaceful people by a bullying Empire. He told us how the Boers fought and how they could have won. He understood guerrilla warfare and passed his knowledge on to us. We imbibed all this for four or five years before the Rising. We were the first Fianna unit to carry arms openly. This was the year before the Rising. He borrowed .22 rif1es from all quarters so that we could march to the Tattoo we held in Shelbourne Park. At that Tattoo we gave military display of attack and defence firing blank from our rifles. We performed a display of tent-erecting and camp-fire singing.’

 

After the rebel surrender in 1916, some fighting was still proceeding in the Ringsend district on a small scale. Fr. Paddy Flanagan was asked by the military to try and stop it. But the Reverend would get more than he bargained for according to Monsignor Curran.

 

"Father Paddy Flanagan, Curate of Ringsend, was arrested yesterday and sent to Richmond Barracks. Poor Father Mooney, P.P., was detained a prisoner, under armed guard in his own house, from twelve noon until 6.30, and then only freed on the promise not to leave the place for three days."

Father Flanagan became the only Priest to be arrested and imprisoned in the aftermath of the Rising but was released on Tuesday, 9th May, 1916. He provided a dreadful account of the treatment of the prisoners in the Barracks under the British military

 

Patrick’s brother, John, had also become a priest and was attached to the Pro-Cathedral when the Rising began. According to Monsignor Curran,

‘Fr. John Flanagan of Marlborough Street who went with Fr. Byrne [Later Archbishop of Dublin] to Parnell Square, and there found that Eoin McNeill's countermanding orders were being carried out.’

Father John would later find himself at the heart of the action inside the GPO hearing confessions of the rebels. According to the Monsignor

 

In 1918 Patrick Flanagan was transferred to Aughrim Street Church and later made parish priest of Booterstown in 1939. He was then involved in the building of a new church on the Merrion Road, Church of our Lady Queen of Peace, opposite St Vincent’s Hospital today.

 

In the building of the church, he built a round tower, similar to the Glendalough tower of St. Kevin’s. It was described at the time by future Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave as ‘Flanagan’s Folly’.  He died in 1956, his brother, by then Parish priest in Fairview ad Mariano, predeceased him in 1935. Archbishop McQuade was the chief celebrate of the funeral mass.