250th celebrations renew interest in searching for organ that disappeared from college in Rome
On his deathbed Daniel O’Connell, the man known in his time as “the Liberator” of Ireland, made a request: “My body to Ireland, my heart to Rome and my soul to heaven.”
On Wednesday Ireland marked the 250th anniversary of his birth with speeches and pomp and a nagging question: where is the heart?
After his death in 1847 O’Connell’s heart was sent to Rome and kept as a prized relic in the Irish College at St Agata dei Goti, or the church of the Goths, but in 1927 authorities discovered it was gone.
It is still missing, and the commemorations this week prompted calls for a renewed search to find it.
