There is no such thing as a bad boy. This phrase was etched into public consciousness by a 1938 film, Boys Town, a sentimental tear-jerker starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. It is based on a heavily fictionalised version of the life of Roscommon-born Fr Edward J Flanagan.

This week, the Vatican declared Monsignor Flanagan as venerable, the second step on the road to sainthood. The title venerable signals a person of faith whose heroic virtue deserves emulation.

Boys Town, formally established in the United States in 1921, was extraordinary for the time. It was a home for boys in trouble with the law or out of home, but without prison fences or locked doors. Influenced by Saint John Bosco, who refused to use corporal punishment in the 19th century, Flanagan believed that through kindness and being given responsibility any boy would thrive.

His sister, Nellie, was central to the family atmosphere. Boys Town was essentially governed by the boys themselves, including electing a boy mayor.

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Boys Town was never segregated either by colour or creed, a........

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