A public square in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is to be named after a Kerryman today.
Pierce O'Mahony helped set up orphanages for Bulgarian children after a bloody uprising against Turkish rulers in the early part of the 20th century.
O'Mahony was born in 1850 near Duagh, in north Kerry. A member of Parnell's Irish Party and at one stage a member of parliament, he set up St Patrick's Orphanage for boys in Sofia in 1904. He won the approval of the head of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria and of Ferdinand I, then king of Bulgaria.
Several of the grandchildren and relatives of those orphans are expected to attend today's ceremony in Sofia, the Bulgarian ambassador to Ireland, Ms Bisserka Benisheva, said. "He has always been very well remembered in Bulgaria," she said. He died in 1930 and is buried in Co Wicklow.