July_August 2017 part 1-final.qxp_Layout 1 07/06/2017 12:33 Page 8

A Life of Continuous Sacrifice St Oliver Plunkett (1625 –81) P h o t o :

I n t e r c o m

liver Plunkett, Catholic boys and also saw to the training Archbishop of Armagh, of priests first in the Dundalk area Owas born 1 November and then in Drogheda. The 1625 at Loughcrew, near Drogheda schools were Oldcastle, Co Meath, son of John suppressed in November 1673. Plunkett and Thomasina Plunkett Some of his priests assisted him (née Dillon). He was related on his greatly including Dean Brian father’s side to the senior McGurk and Henry Hughes, his branches of the Plunketts (Lords vicar-general. Oliver ordained Fingall, Dunsany, and Louth) and some 200 priests in Ireland, some on his mother’s side, through at Ballybarrack, Dundalk. cousinship, to the Earls of An educated and disciplined Roscommon and Fingall. He was clergy was one of his main tutored by his first cousin once pastoral desires. His pursuit of removed, the Cistercian Patrick discipline caused resentment Plunkett, later bishop of Ardagh among some clergy. He met a (1647-69) and Meath (1669-79) on group of Tyrone tories in whose advice he travelled to September 1670 and arranged Rome. Oliver stayed in the Irish pardons and a safe conduct for College, Via degli Ibernesi, Rome, fieen of them to go abroad. He from 1650 to 1654 (or perhaps developed a friendly relationship 1656). He studied at the Jesuit with Protestant leaders including university, Il Collegio Romano, Archbishop James Margetson of and later at the Collegio di Armagh and First Viscount Propaganda Fide. He was Charlemont and this helped him ordained priest on 1 January 1654 to pursue his pastoral work by Anthony MacGeoghegan OFM, St Malachy’s Church, Reaghstown, Ardee discreetly. He made a pastoral Bishop of Clonmacnoise. Aer his visit to six dioceses. petition to stay in Rome he was exempted appointed. The cleavage between the Old One major problem he met was the from his student oath to return on Irish and Anglo-Irish was still strong but dispute between the Dominicans and the mission to Ireland. He became a chaplain on the whole he was warmly welcomed. Franciscans concerning the rights of with the Oratorian Fathers at San On his way, he was ordained bishop on 1 questing in four northern dioceses. Some Gerolamo della Carità. Having completed December 1669 by Bishop D’Allamont of of the Franciscans, aer their houses had further studies he was appointed Ghent. been dissolved, acted as curates in the professor of theology in the Collegio di Oliver’s active ministry lasted nine larger rural parishes. The Franciscans and Propaganda Fide. He gained the years and nine months. He was a man in a their lay friends were openly hostile to friendship of Mgr Odescalchi, who in hurry. He shared his compassion with his him when he decided uncompromisingly 1676 became Pope as Innocent XI. He people when he returned. Although in favour of the Dominicans. oen assisted him in ministering in the things had eased under Charles I the Archbishop Oliver Plunkett and hospital of Santo Spirito. Agent in Rome country had been devastated in the Archbishop Peter Talbot engaged in an for Patrick Plunkett, Bishop of Meath, he Cromwellian period. A few of the Anglo- unseemly dispute over the primatial was also nominated agent for the Irish nobility survived. The Gaelic nobility rights of Armagh and Dublin. Archbishop province of Dublin by Peter Talbot, in the north was almost no more. Oliver Plunkett played an active part in solving Archbishop of Dublin. set out to repair a broken church, calling disputes in various dioceses and On the death of Archbishop Edmund synods, restructuring a hierarchy, pulling reported on them to Rome. Plunkett O’Reilly, Oliver, who had petitioned to together a clergy rent with dissensions, wrote a short book in English Jus succeed him, was appointed to the See of demoralised and deprived of education. rimatiale (Dublin, 1672) a defence of Armagh by Pope Clement IX despite a He confirmed some 10,000 people, Armagh’s primacy and that was answered petition from the agent of the Armagh young and old, in his province, and by Talbot’s book in Latin, Primatus clergy that no Meathman should be founded two schools for the education of Dublinensis (Lille, 1674). However the

8 Intercom • July/August 2017 July_August 2017 part 1-final.qxp_Layout 1 07/06/2017 12:33 Page 9 P h o

archbishops were reconciled by Bishop t o :

D i l i

John O’Molony of Killaloe. f f ,

2 4

J

In the spring of 1673 he spent six u l y

2 0

weeks in Connacht. Then he had to face 1 5 political change. Resentment had grown in the English parliament against the king’s tolerance of Catholics. A wave of persecution followed. Archbishop Talbot was banished. Bishops and priests went underground. Plunkett and his friend John Brenan, who had returned to Ireland, sought refuge in south Armagh. There was a famine in the north in 1674 in which 400 Catholics died of hunger. Oliver wrote: ‘You can see hundreds and hundreds of starved skeletons walking the roads.’ He did his best to help. He lived a life of continuous sacrifice. The archbishop continued to write to Rome regarding the appointment of bishops. He held synods of his own clergy every two years and finally a provincial synod at Ardpatrick near Louth village in August 1678, which issued twenty-six decrees directed at the sanctification of the faithful, the ending of clerical scandals, and restoration of church discipline. He continued to report to Rome on the situation in various dioceses. Aer the alleged discovery of a ‘popish plot’ in 1678 the bishops went into hiding again. In October 1679 Oliver risked a visit to Dublin to visit Bishop Plunkett of Meath, who was ill and died on 18 November. On 21 October 1679 the English privy council instructed the lord lieutenant, the Duke of Ormond, to arrest Oliver and Bishop Patrick Tyrrell of Clogher. A letter had been given to the Duke of York in Brussels accusing Col. John Fitzpatrick (Plunkett’s benefactor, and brother-in-law of Ormond) and the two bishops of plotting to bring a French army to Ireland. Oliver was arrested on 6 December, imprisoned in Dublin and tried in Dundalk (23 July 1680) on two bills of indictment, one for treason and one for The Shrine of Oliver Plunkett at St Peter’s Church in Drogheda, Ireland exercising papal jurisdiction. When Florence MacMoyer and the hostile friar drew the sketch on which later paintings Edmund Murphy, a priest whom he had John MacMoyer (he later repented), were of him are based. suspended, failed to appear as a witness, weak and unimpressive. Beyond Oliver was beatified by Benedict XV the trial broke down. But on 6 October protesting against being tried in England (23 May 1920) and canonised by Paul VI Oliver was sent for trial to London and Oliver made little defence. In prison he (12 October 1975). His relics are venerated was transferred to Newgate prison. In was attended by his faithful servant and in St Peter’s Church, Drogheda (where his April 1681 the Westminster grand jury friend for eleven years, James MacKenna, head is kept), Downside Abbey, England, found a true bill against him and returned and by Dom Maurus Corker OSB, a fellow and Lampsringe, Germany. him for trial. On 3 May he was arraigned prisoner. His last moving speech was This account is based on my article for high treason before the king’s bench printed in London. His courage, ‘Plunkett, St Oliver (1625-81)’ in and given five weeks to bring his forbearance and forgiveness during his Dictionary of Irish Biography , Volume 8, witnesses from Ireland. On 8 June, before imprisonment revealed his saintly nature. Royal Irish Academy, 2009. their arrival, he was tried for high treason He was executed at Tyburn on 11 July 1681. and found guilty on perjured evidence. It was probably during his imprisonment Lay and priest witnesses, including that Garret Murphy, a Dublin portraitist, Réamonn Ó Muirí, Armagh

Intercom • July/August 2017 9