Austin Flannery

Fr Austin (Liam) Flannery OP, was a Dominican priest, editor, publisher and social justice campaigner.

He was born Liam Flannery in Rear Cross, Co Tipperary, on 10 January 1925. He was the eldest of the seven children of William K Flannery and his wife Margaret (née Butler). He was educated at St Flannan's College, Ennis, completing his secondary education was at Dominican College, Newbridge, Co Kildare.

He joined the Dominican Order, in September 1944, led to studies in theology at St Mary's Priory, Tallaght, and then at Blackfriars, Oxford. Joining the Dominicans he chose the name Austin, he was ordained a priest in 1950. He continued his studies at the Angelicum University in Rome. After his studies he taught Latin in Newbridge College and then theology at [Glenstal Abbey], County Limerick.

Fr. Austin edited the Dominican bi-monthly journal entitled Doctrine and Life from 1958 to 1988. He also edited the Religious Life Review. He published many English language documents on the second vatican council.

Fr Flannerys campaigning to end apartheid in South Africa, led to involvement with Kader Asmal, and the founding the Irish Anti-apartheid Movement, of which he served as chairman and president. In the late sixties his campaigning on behalf of the Dublin Housing Action Committee, due to its association with republicans and left wing activists, led him to being accused of being a communist. He was dismissed in the Dail by the then Minister for Finance, Charles Haughey, as a gullible cleric.

He died of a heart attack aged 83 on October 21, 2008, and is buried in the Dominican plot in Glasnevin Cemetery.

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