SCALING DOWN: Pictured at the 2012 Humanitarian Award to Sr Agnes Hunt of the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas are the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny, British Ambassador Dominic Chilcott, Papal Nuncio John Brown, Killarney Mayor Cllr Sean O’Grady and various members of the O’Flaherty Memorial Society and the O’Flaherty family. Photo: MacMonagle Photography

By Sean Moriarty

The Hugh O’Flaherty Humanitarian Award will not be presented in 2020 after members decided to greatly reduce its activities in the town.

The Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Society was founded by the Killarney Chamber in 2008.

Its key objectives at the time were to erect a permanent memorial in Killarney town centre, present an annual award in his name and to increase awareness of his humanitarian work through school programmes and student projects.

On the 50th anniversary of his death, October 30, 2013 a bronze memorial was unveiled on Mission Road in Killarney fulfilling the committee’s first objective.

The annual humanitarian award was first presented in 2009 and last year was given to members of the Irish Defence Forces in recognition of their 60 years of peacekeeping humanitarian missions with the United Nations.

The Society confirmed this week that last year’s award will be the last to be presented for the foreseeable future.

“Following the 2018 Memorial Weekend which marked a decade of Humanitarian Awards, the Society Committee met in early 2019 to review its activities and for a number of reasons such as resources, costs and logistics, a decision was taken to reduce the future Programme of Activities after the 2019 Humanitarian Award Ceremony,” Chairperson of the Society, Jerry O’Grady, said.

However, the Society will continue to engage with local schools and students.

“For the foreseeable future the Memorial Society will be confining its activities to continued interaction with primary schools in terms of competitions and, with students at second and third levels as a resource for projects and dissertations etc.,” he added.

“Also, we will continue to promote the Monsignor's story through the media and the arts. From our extensive family and society archives, we have already helped with the publishing of a number of books and articles, and the creation of theatre and TV productions, including Donal Courtney’s acclaimed drama ‘God Has No Country’.”

Jerry confirmed that award-winning author Joseph O'Connor’s next novel will focus on Monsignor O'Flaherty and the Rome Escape Line.