THERE has been a call for an appropriate memorial to be erected in Killarney to honour local woman Jane (Janie) McCarthy for her incredible heroism in France during World War II.
She devoted much of her life to rescuing people in Paris whose lives were under threat from the Gestapo during the occupation.
Born to Michael and Margaret McCarthy of Lower New Street in 1885, Jane was one of 14 children, 10 of whom survived into adulthood.
She moved to Brittany in France in 1910, at the age of 25, and worked as an au pair and English teacher, teaching in Vannes for 15 years which led to her being recognised in 1918 with the Palme d’Acadamique for her services to education.
Concerned at the plight of the most vulnerable during the war, Jane served four different resistance networks between 1940 and 1944 and came to the aid of downed Allied airmen.
She lived in an apartment on Rue Saint Anne which she used as a safe house for those in need of assistance. According to historical articles, she engaged in many dangerous missions to provide safe hideouts.
Jane donated the greater share of her salary to fund a civilian camp at Saint Denis, the Military Hospital Val de Grace and the sanatorium at Brevannes, outside Paris.
For her remarkable exploits, she was awarded France’s highest award, the Legion d’Honour, in addition to the Croix de Guerre and a Croix de la Resistance.
The United States of America also honoured the Killarney native with the Medal of Freedom while Britain awarded her the Tedder Certificate.
Following the war, she returned home every summer to spend time with family, regularly bringing students with her to experience life in her home place. She died in December 1964 and while the exact location of her resting place remains unclear, it is understood to have been in Levallois-Perret, close to Paris.
In keeping with the established practice in France, the grave plot was leased for 10 years – reported to have been to a man named Cornelius Healy – but the lease was not renewed and the plot was reassigned in 1975.
Mayor of Killarney, Michael Gleeson, who has long been an advocate of the need to recognise the achievements of Jane McCarthy in her hometown, has asked Kerry County Council to honour her in an appropriate manner and officials have pledged to work with the mayor to do so.
Cllr Gleeson is also anxious to trace any of Jane McCarthy or her family. It is known that her brother, Joseph, became a priest and later a monsignor in New York. He died in 1960 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Queens.
* Cllr Michael Gleeson would be delighted to hear from anybody that can provide any further information on the life and times of Jane McCarthy, or anybody that can supply a photograph of the war heroine from New Street.
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