Contents

1:

2: St. Peter’s Church

3: National Shrine to St. Oliver

4: St. Oliver in Drogheda

5: Schools of St. Oliver in Drogheda

Drogheda

Drogheda, known for generations as the ‘City of the Churches’ was the largest and most important centre of St. Oliver’s Archdiocese of . Protected by an extensive wall, it played a significant role in the trade and commerce of the period and St. Oliver wrote: “The city I speak of, by the way, is Pontana, in English Drogheda, in Irish Dreat. It is about five hours journey from and is the finest city in after Dublin”.

St. Peter’s Church

The National Shrine to St. Oliver is located in St. Peter’s Church, Drogheda otherwise known as the St. Oliver Plunkett Memorial Church. The church was one of the last of the gothic churches to have been built and as such it incorporates many of the finer aspects of gothic architecture. Built by parish , Mgr. Robert Murphy in the late nineteenth century; it is regarded today as a masterpiece of beauty and design. Its interior was decorated by his successor, Mgr. Patrick Segrave in the early twentieth century and his work is also regarded as exquisite in both taste and in finish. A similar building of design and adornment, could not be built by the people of Drogheda today because of the astronomical costs such a project would entail.

A couple of years after St. Oliver’s martyrdom, the Relic of the Head was brought to Rome and remained there for about forty years, until it was given into the care of the new community of Dominican nuns at Siena convent in Drogheda, c.1725. The nuns were under the leadership of Sr. Catherine Plunkett a relative of St. Oliver and believed to have been his grand niece. The community had shortly beforehand moved from a mud cabin on the south side of the Boyne to a more substantial house in Dyer Street and they were living surreptitiously as a group of women, so as to avoid any difficulties with the authorities. For the following two centuries, this community proved their resourcefulness and devotion by faithfully preserving and venerating this priceless relic of the Irish Church, throughout the difficulties of penal times. During the war of independence because of a fear that some of the notorious Black and Tan forces might steal or desecrate the Relic, armed republican forces were positioned in its defence, in the locality of the Siena community at Chord Road, this being in an era of attack and reprisal. Within months and to the great disappointment of this community, the Relic of the Head was transferred in 1921 to the newly built, St. Peter’s Church, Drogheda, the Memorial Church of St. Oliver, where it was installed in a side altar. National Shrine to St. Oliver The Relic of St. Oliver’s Head now stands in an impressive new shrine, which was erected in 1995. Pilgrims have the opportunity to walk around the shrine and view at close quarters this precious relic of the Irish church. One can also view the original document of authentication of the relics, which was signed shortly after St. Oliver’s martyrdom, by Elizabeth Sheldon and surgeon John Ridley. After St. Oliver was hung, drawn and quartered at , the Head was thrown into the prepared fire nearby. His friends quickly retrieved it however and scorch marks from the fire may still be seen on the left cheek of the Head. The Head is heavy and not just a bare skull and is in remarkably good condition considering that it has never been hermetically sealed. The Shrine at Drogheda also includes some bone relics of St. Oliver, donated by the Benedictine Community, Downside around the time of his canonisation. Overhead is the Canonisation Picture, which hung from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome during the canonisation ceremony on October 12th 1975. In a glass cabinet nearby, is the door from the condemned cell of , and St. Oliver would have been in this cell as a condemned man for the last few weeks of his life. Renowned for his letter writing, it was during this time that St. Oliver wrote his most poignant letters. He also wrote during this time, his last speech, which he delivered from the gallows at Tyburn and is famous for showing forgiveness to all those who had anything to do with his death. Thousands of pilgrims visit the National Shrine of St. Oliver each month, making it one of the most popular attractions in Ireland. Coming from all counties of Ireland and various parts of the world; some come as sightseers, but many go away with an admiration for the loyalty in faith of those who have gone before us. Many pilgrims come to pray for various petitions and light candles. Some come to give thanks to St. Oliver for his intercession and for favours already received. [email protected] Many come to kneel and pray for peace and reconciliation in Ireland, before the Shrine of our for this cause in Ireland.

Many dignitaries also come to pray at the Shrine of St. Oliver. Pope Paul VI at the canonisation ceremony in 1975, recalled a visit he made to the shrine some years earlier as Cardinal Montini. The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese has prayed at a service for peace and reconciliation at the Shrine, and there have been many other such prayer ceremonies at the Shrine. On the first Sunday of July each year, the annual celebration takes place at the Shrine, with a procession and Mass, commencing at 3pm.

When Pope John Paul II visited Killineer just outside Drogheda in 1979, he recalled his own attendance at the canonisation of St. Oliver in Rome, four years earlier. The Relic of the Head had been brought to the field at Killineer for his visit and after he knelt and prayed before the Relic, Pope John Paul preached his famous sermon of peace and reconciliation to the congregation of three hundred thousand people. His impassioned plea for peace to the men and women of violence received extensive international coverage and echoed around the world. It is commonly believed that his visit heralded the beginnings of the Irish peace process and sowed the seeds for a real change of heart, so that hatred and bitterness could thankfully be banished from the hearts of Irish men and women. During these early years of the twenty-first century, we give thanks to God for all the successes of the Irish peace process to date and we continue to pray through the intercession of St. Oliver, for a fulsome reconciliation amongst all traditions, on the island of Ireland.

St. Oliver in Drogheda

Barely twenty years before St. Oliver’s return in 1670 as the of Armagh, Cromwell and his roundheads had carried out their cruel deeds in Drogheda and throughout the country. Given the choice, Catholics had chosen by an overwhelming majority to relinquish their land, property and positions, rather than to turn their back on the ancient faith, handed down to them by their forefathers. After Cromwell’s death, with the Restoration of the monarchy and King Charles II on the throne, the tactic of divide and conquer was initiated, to try and cause a split amongst the Catholics of Ireland when a remonstrance or declaration of loyalty to the King was proposed. In order to promote this agenda amongst Catholics, sympathetic of the Remonstrance were allowed to reopen chapels during the 1660’s in some of the leading centres in Ireland. Drogheda was included in this list and by the time of St. Oliver’s return, several such chapels were in existence, although priests more loyal to the Pope had by this time, taken charge of such chapels. Within eighteen months of his return, Archbishop Oliver wrote of the very fine, ornate chapels in Drogheda of the orders of Capuchins, Franciscans and Jesuits and of a poorer chapel of the Augustinian community. So for a period, Catholic worship was tolerated again, provided it was kept to a rather low profile and did not annoy or antagonise in any way the Government or the leading citizens or churchmen of the reform religions. Across the rest of the province however, the mass-rock was in vogue as none of the land was under Catholic control and so churches were disallowed. Despite this difficulty, it proved to be St. Oliver’s opportunity for doing good and he sprang into action during this short lull in the administration of the laws of oppression against Catholics. Indeed looking at his achievements, it is difficult to comprehend how one man could have achieved so much good in such a short period of time, triumphed over so many of life’s problems, while at the same time endured so many of life’s trials and tribulations.

Schools of St. Oliver in Drogheda

Before he undertook any new ventures, Archbishop Oliver first prepared the ground, so that by diplomacy he could smooth out a path towards success, as when he negotiated a peace agreement with the Tories/Raparees or the delicate task of removing the corrupt Vicar of Derry. The schools were another good example; despite the fact that Catholic schools were outlawed and notwithstanding the strong opposition to them, he diplomatically obtained permission to open a school in Drogheda. Without doubt he had already explained his intentions and allayed the fears of the Protestant and also the Viceroy in Dublin. This would have been necessary, as without their toleration, he could not have gone ahead with the project. When established, they probably hindered or remained neutral towards the many complaints, which were put forward against them. As forty Protestant boys were educated at the school, it no doubt helped to overcome some of the local opposition to them, although others must have been aghast, that good Protestant boys were attending a school run by the Jesuits.

The school formed a crucial part of Archbishop Oliver’s plan of reform for the province and must have been on his mind even before his return to Ireland. Remarkably, the school and college, which he himself paid for and built from the ground up, was in operation in July 1670, or within four months of his return as the Archbishop of Armagh. Luckily for him, ‘An Bord Pleanála’ was not then in existence. He also built a ‘comfortable house’ for the three Jesuits priests and a brother who ran the school. It could accommodate one hundred and fifty boys, including forty who were Protestant. A section of the school was reserved for the education of priests and this college would later cater for up to fifty-six at a time. The expense of all this was considerable and Archbishop Oliver mentions in one of his letters that in order to help financially with the schools upkeep, he dressed himself in clothing made of inexpensive or rough material and he kept a most sparing table.

In a letter from Drogheda, dated 26th April 1671, he wrote: “Apart from three, the nobles and gentry of the whole province of Ulster were deprived of their possessions, and from being landlords and proprietors have become leaseholders. They are unable to educate their children. The young priests ordained over the past seven years to fill the parishes vacated by the death of the older priests are very deficient in learning: they do not have schoolmasters fit to teach them, nor were Catholic masters tolerated, and thus even the sons of gentlemen deprived of learning and skill grew up to become rogues and highwaymen, and many of them were hanged. Seeing this state of affairs I undertook a risky project: I called in the Jesuits into my diocese, I built for them from the foundations quite a comfortable house and two schools where they train up to one hundred and fifty boys and twenty five priests… I have supported for the past nine months two very learned and hard working fathers, a brother and a servant; one instructs the priests for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon in cases of conscience, and the manner of preaching and catechising, and he also teaches rhetoric for two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon, and on feast days and free days he gives instruction in ceremonies and the administration of the sacraments, the other father teaches syntax and concordances. Besides, both of them often preach. I have kept them these nine months at my own expense, and have bought for them even the frying pan”.

Even though Drogheda Grammar School, an Erasmus school had opened a year earlier in 1669, there continued to be much opposition to the Catholic school in Drogheda and undoubtedly to the fact that Protestants boys were attending a Jesuit school. Within eight months of his schools start up; Archbishop Oliver was summoned on no less than nine occasions to the Viceroy’s court in Dublin because of the school’s existence and for his exercise of foreign or papal jurisdiction.

His diplomacy and his experience as professor of controversies in Rome obviously stood to him, as he won the argument on each occasion, thus enabling the schools continuance for a little while longer. The winds of toleration soon changed for the worse however and the schools in Drogheda were leveled to the ground by the authorities in November 1673, after only three years and five months in operation. This was a terrible blow to Archbishop Oliver, having expended so much effort and resources on the school and college, now witnessing their great potential stamped out. Nevertheless their influence for good, even after such a short time in operation, would have been felt in the Irish Church and in society generally, for many years afterwards. Later he wrote: “There is nothing which gives me greater interior pain however, than to see the schools established by me thrown down after such expense. O what will the Catholic youth do now, so numerous and so talented”.

The exact location of St. Oliver’s schools in Drogheda remains a mystery; some evidence suggests they were in Trinity Street, in the area of the Star and Crescent, although this location would have left them outside the town walls. Others believe that they were in the Shop Street or Dyer Street area. Canon Francis Carolan, PP Mellifont, in a booklet written in 1943 states that all agree the schools were located in Shop Street. He surmises they were on the grounds of the Augustinians Church/Friary in Shop Street and recounts a story that the Augustinians while building their Church/Friary in Shop Street had to get the ownership and title deeds of a certain property transferred from the Jesuits to the Augustinians before building work commenced.