Delia Murphy

During World War II, she aided Vatican official, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, in saving the lives of 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews, while her husband, Dr. Thomas J. Kiernan, was the Irish Ambassador in Rome from 1941–46.

Her father, John Murphy, from nearby Hollymount, made his fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush.

In April 1941, during the Belfast Blitz, Murphy saved many lives by convincing people to remain inside the city’s Ulster Hall, where she sang throughout the air raid.

[8] Murphy became one of those who assisted Hugh O'Flaherty (the "Vatican pimpernel") in hiding Jews and escaped allied soldiers from the Nazis.

[9] When German troops began occupying Rome, Murphy smuggled Allied soldiers out of the city by hiding them beneath rugs in the back of a car.

[11] Kiernan later served as Irish High Commissioner and later first Ambassador in Australia, and later to West Germany, Canada, and the United States.