Dates

• Existence: 13 July 1886 - 15 May 1948

Biography

Edward Flanagan was an Irish born Catholic Priest and educationalist who founded Boys Town, a renowned child-care facility in Douglas county, eastern Nebraska in 1917 to care for homeless boys. Begun as a house where Father Flanagan cared for boys in 1921 he purchased Overlook Farm where Boys Town grew into a village where the boys elected a mayor and councillors from amongst themselves. At boys town Father Flanagan pioneered new juvenile care techniques that went on to be adopted elsewhere.

Flanagan was known internationally for his work with delinquent and homeless boys. In 1937 Pope Pius XI named him a Domestic Prelate. In 1946 Flanagan travelled home to Ireland where he was appalled by the children's institutions there. His observations were published after returning to Omaha, but only incited attacks from the Irish media at him rather than causing any real change in his homeland.

He was invited by General MacArthur to Japan and Korea in 1947 to advise on child welfare, as well as to Austria and Germany in 1948. While in Germany, he died of a heart attack.

In recent years there has been a movement calling for the sainthood of Father Flanagan. He was give the title 'Servant of God' in 2012, the first of three titles given before canonisation and an investigation by the Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska was completed and sent on to the Vatican in 2015.

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