Later Career
In 1898 Mahony was called to the Irish bar, and subsequently practised as a barrister. In 1900 he inherited an estate from an uncle and thereafter did not need paid work, instead devoting himself to philanthropy. In 1903 O’Mahony travelled to Bulgaria to undertake relief work among orphans who had fled from Turkish massacres, and in 1904 opened St Patrick’s Orphanage in Sofia. On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he unsuccessfully tried to prevent Bulgaria entering alliance with Germany, and after the war argued for Bulgaria to be exempted from war reparations. On 20 January 1915, he was awarded the Order of Civil Merit by Ferdinand I of Bulgaria.
In 1913, O’Mahony supported the workers led by James Larkin in the Dublin Lockout.
During the First World War he served as a member of the Irish Recruiting Council for Irish regiments, and in September 1915 visited the Leinster Regiment with some members of the Irish League who were visiting the front, where he made a long speech on Ireland and on having such a fine battalion. For his recruiting work he was awarded a C.B.E. in 1920, but declined it. Later in the year and resigned as Deputy Lieutenant of County Wicklow and as a magistrate in protest against British policy in the Irish War of Independence then in progress.
While in Bulgaria, O’Mahony had joined the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, but he remained also a member of the Church of Ireland until 1927 when a new Rector forced him to choose between the religions. He then became a Catholic, in 1929, the year before his death.
In commemoration of his relationship with the Bulgarian Orthodox church, in 1909, Pierce commissioned a fresco by Iliev Gannin, depicting Saints Methodius, Cyril and Patrick. This unique juxtaposition of important Christian saints can be found in the chapel at the monastery of St Nicholas near the town of Maglizh in Bulgaria. Some say St Patrick looks quite like Pierce O'Mahony.
His son Dermot O'Mahony (1881–1960) was a Cumann na nGaedheal member of the Dáil of the Irish Free State for County Wicklow in 1927-38.
A street in Sofia is named Pierce O'Mahony Street in his honour. Asenovgrad-born Bulgarian theatre director Atanas O'Mahony (b. 1979) bears the name of the Irish philanthropist. Atanas' grand-grandfather Ivan was among the Bulgarian orphans adopted by Pierce O'Mahony and given his own family name.
Read more about this topic: Pierce Charles De Lacy O'Mahony
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