Irish Colleges, ON THE CONTINENT.—The religious persecution under Elizabeth and James I led to the suppression of the monastic schools in Ireland in which the clergy for the most part received their education. It became necessary, therefore, to seek education abroad, and many colleges for the training of the secular clergy were founded on the Continent, at Rome, in Spain and Portugal, in Belgium, and in France. The history of the Irish college and of the other Irish establishments at Rome is dealt with in special articles (see Irish College in Rome. etc.). That of the other Irish colleges on the Continent may, for the sake of order, be given in separate sections, according to the countries in which they existed.
IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.—Salamanca.—The most famous of the Irish colleges in Spain was that of Salamanca, founded, at the petition of Father Thomas White, S.J., by a decree of Philip III dated 1592, and opened in 1593 with the title: El Real Colegio de Nobles Irlandeses. The support of the students was provided for by a royal endowment. The discipline and management of the college was entrusted to the Jesuit Fathers at Salamanca, an Irish father holding the office of vice-rector. The Jesuits continued to govern the college until the order was expelled from Spain in 1767. Since that date the rectors of the college have been selected from amongst the Irish secular clergy, presented by the bishops of Ireland and confirmed by the King of Spain. Dr. Birmingham was the first rector after the departure of the Jesuits. Dr. Curtis, subsequently Archbishop of Armagh, held that office from 1781 to 1812, and rendered valuable service to the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War. In more recent years Dr. William McDonald, of the Diocese of Armagh, Father Cowan, of Dromore, Father Bernard Maguire, of Clogher, have been rectors. That office is at present held by the Very Rev. Michael O’Doherty, D.D., a priest of the Diocese of Achonry. The Irish college at Salamanca was open to students from all the provinces of Ireland, but in the seventeenth century the majority of them came from the southern and eastern provinces. It was made cause of complaint that Father White, S.J., was unwilling to receive students from Ulster and Connaught, and the exiled Irish chiefs, O’Neill and O’Donnell, presented a remonstrance on the subject to the King of Spain. The students attended lectures in the famous University of Salamanca, and the college was the nursing mother of many eminent Irish ecclesiastics. Dr. Curtis of Armagh, Dr. Murray of Dublin, Dr. Kelly of Tuam, Dr. Laffan, and Dr. Everard of Cashel were all alumni of Salamanca, the last four being fellow-students. At present the Irish students at Salamanca number about thirty, and attend lectures at the diocesan seminary which has taken the place of the theological faculty of the ancient university. The college is supported chiefly by ancient endowments, which are subject to the control of the Spanish Government.
Seville.—About 1612 a college for Irish students was established at Seville, and managed by secular priests, one of whom was Theobald Stapleton, who afterwards died a martyr in Ireland, being stabbed while administering Holy Communion. In 1619 Father Richard Conway, S.J., was appointed rector. When he entered upon office, the personnel of the college—superiors, students, and servants—amounted to eighteen. They suffered much from poverty. Their condition moved many to compassion. The fishermen at Seville obtained an indult from Pope Paul V, permitting them to fish on six Sundays and holidays each year in order that they might give the profits of their labor for the support of the Irish students. For the same purpose Irish merchants at Seville granted to the college a percentage on every cask of wine they sold. Soldiers of the Irish Brigade in the Spanish service gave a portion of their pay. With such aid the college continued to exist and was able to send every year two priests to the Irish mission. One of the students of the college, Dominic Lynch, became professor in the University of Seville. In 1769 the Irish college at Seville, with all its goods, rents, and rights, was, by royal authority, amalgamated with that of Salamanca.
Madrid.—In 1629 a college for Irishmen was founded by Father Theobald Stapleton, who has already been mentioned in connection with the college at Seville. The number of students varied from ten to twenty, supported by the charity of benefactors. The college served as a hospice for those Irish ecclesiastics who, having completed their studies, came to the capital to claim the bounty of £ 10 which the King of Spain had granted to Irish students in the Peninsula, to enable them to return to Ireland. In 1677, Dr. James Lynch, Archbishop of Tuam, resided for some time at Madrid and succeeded in restoring the college to greater prosperity. But eventually it was closed, and its property lost to the Church in Ireland.
Alcalca.—In Alcala, anciently Cornplutum, famous for its university, and for its polyglot edition of the Bible, an Irish college was founded in 1590, by a Portuguese nobleman named George Sylveira, a descendant, through his mother, of the Macdonnells of Ulster. He bestowed on the college an endowment of the value of £2000, and, at a cost of £1000, built a chapel dedicated to his patron, St. George. At Alcali, there were four masters, twenty students, and eight servants. This ancient college has long since ceased to exist.
Santiago de Compostela.—In 1605 a college for Irish ecclesiastics was founded at Compostela. Philip III bestowed upon it an endowment of £100 a year. It was under the direction of the Jesuits. In 1671 there were six students. At the conclusion of the philosophy course all went to Salamanca for their theological studies. In 1769 the property of the Irish college at Santiago de Compostela was amalgamated with that of the college at Salamanca.
Lisbon.—Besides the colleges in Spain there existed also an Irish establishment at Lisbon. The college was founded by Royal Charter in 1593, under the title: Collegio de Estudiantes Irlandeses sub invocacaon de San Patricio en Lisboa. Like the other Irish colleges in the Peninsula it was placed under the management of the Jesuits. The celebrated Stephen White, S.J., was one of its earliest pupils. During the great earthquake which almost destroyed the city of Lisbon in 1755, the Irish college and its inmates suffered no injury. Not long after it suffered from the malice of men. In 1769 it was closed and confiscated by Pombal, under the pretext that it was a Jesuit establishment. But in 1782 an Irish secular priest, Dr. Michael Brady, succeeded in having the college restored to the Irish. Dr. Brady was succeeded in the office of rector by Dr. Bartholomew Crotty, subsequently President of Maynooth, and Bishop of Cloyne. Dr. Crotty held the office of rector from 1801 to 1811. During his tenure of office an invitation was addressed by Dr. John Baptist Walsh, rector of the Irish college in Paris, to the students at Lisbon, to come to his college in Paris, an invitation of which the bishops of Ireland expressed their disapproval. The number of students in the Irish college at Lisbon in the eighteenth century was from twelve to fourteen. During the French Revolution it increased to thirty or forty, to fall again to fourteen after 1815. Dr. Burke, Archbishop of Tuam; Dr. Talbot, Dr. Russell, and Dr. Carpenter, Archbishops of Dublin; Dr. Verdon, Bishop of Ferns, and Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Waterford, were Lisbon students. During the civil wars in Portugal, in the nineteenth century, the college was closed, and has not since been reopened.
Besides the colleges for the education of the secular clergy at Lisbon there was also a convent of Irish Dominican Fathers, and a convent of Irish Dominican nuns, both of which exist at the present day, the former at Corpo Santo, Lisbon, and the latter at Belem in the vicinity.
IN BELGIUM.—Louvain.—While the colleges in the Peninsula were doing good service for the preservation of the Faith in Ireland, other colleges for the same purpose were established in Flanders. In 1624 a college for the education of priests, with the title “Collegium Pastorale”, was founded at Louvain, in virtue of a charter granted by the Holy See at the instance of the Most Rev. Eugene Macmahon, Archbishop of Dublin. Urban VIII gave a donation for the support of the college, and the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda bestowed upon it an annual allowance of 240 scudi. Burses were also founded by various benefactors, the aggregate value of which amounted to 73,217 florins. The first rector of the college was Nicholas Aylmer. The students at the commencement were six in number. In 1643 there were four priests, and three students in philosophy. At the close of the eighteenth century the number had increased to forty. Many distinguished Irish ecclesiastics were students of the pastoral college at Louvain. One of its rectors, Thomas Stapleton, held also the office of rector of the university for several terms.
Besides the secular colleges, convents for the Irish regular clergy were established at Louvain. Of these the most ancient and the most celebrated was the Franciscan College of St. Anthony of Padua, founded in 1606 at the request of Florence Conry, Archbishop of Tuam. The number of Irish friars at St. Anthony’s in the seventeenth century was about forty. In this convent lived John Colgan, the celebrated Irish hagiologist, author of the “Trias Thaumaturga” and of “Lives of the Irish Saints”. Here, too, lived Hugh Ward, Father Mooney, Brendan O’Connor, and Bonaventure O’Doherty, who so ably assisted Michael O’Cleary in collecting materials for the great work known as the “Annals of the Four Masters“. The Franciscans of St. Anthony’s did great service to the cause of religion by printing books of instruction in the Irish tongue. At Louvain were printed the Irish Catechism of Bonaventure O’Hussey (1608), “The Mirror of Penance“, by Hugh MacCaughwell (1618), “The Mirror of Religion“, by Florence Conry (1626), O’Cleary’s vocabulary (1643), “The Paradise of the Soul“, by Anthony Gernon (1645), and a moral treatise in English and Irish, by Richard MacGiollacuddy (Arsdekin) (1667). It has been truly said of the convent of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain, “No Franciscan College has maintained with more zeal than this, the character of the order as expressed in their motto Doctrines et Scientia.” At the close of the eighteenth century the number of friars at St. Anthony’s was seventeen. In 1796 the convent was closed to the Irish, and sold. There existed also at Louvain a convent of Irish Dominicans founded in 1608, and known as the convent of Holy Cross. In 1627 there were twelve fathers in this convent. A letter of the nuncio at Brussels, in 1675, gives the names of thirty-three Dominicans, who had gone from Holy Cross to labor on the mission in Ireland. The Irish Dominican convent at Louvain was closed in 1797. A convent of Irish Benedictine nuns was established at Ypres in 1682 where for more than two centuries Irish women aspiring to religious perfection found a home. This convent has survived to the present day (1910). The colleges, secular and regular, at Louvain during the two centuries of their existence gave to the Church in Ireland 32 bishops and about 300 priests, of whom 200 at least were graduates in arts of the University of Louvain.
Antwerp.—In 1629 a pastoral college was founded at Antwerp by the Rev. Lawrence Sedgrave, a Leinster priest, who, together with his nephew, the Rev. James Talbot, expended 13,220 florins on the establishment of the college, and became its first rector, as his nephew became its second. After their time the college suffered much from poverty and was on the point of being closed and sold to meet the claims of creditors. But during the rectorate of John Egan, prothonotary Apostolic, it received a fresh impulse. Donations were received, and creditors satisfied. Through the pronuncio at Brussels, the Holy See sent subventions from time to time. The number of students, usually about twelve, increased eventually to thirty. They attended lectures at the Jesuit college at Antwerp, where their distinguished countryman, Fr. Richard Archdeacon (Arsdekin), S.J., died in 1690. The pastoral colleges at Louvain and at Antwerp continued to flourish until 1795, when they were closed on the occupation of Belgium by the French. At various times the bishops of Ireland made representations to the Belgian Government with a view to obtain the transfer of the burses to Ireland, and they have been so far successful that at the present time the annual revenue of the burses is paid through the medium of the British Foreign Office for the education of students at Maynooth College.
Tournai.—An Irish college was founded at Tournai by Christopher Cusack. In 1689 there were eight ecclesiastics at Tournai, with an income of 200 scudi. Choiseul, Bishop of Tournai, in a letter to Innocent X, speaks thus of the Irish college: “We have here a College or Seminary of Irish youth where some poor students are supported, receive a Christian education, and are taught the Humanities. They attend the classes at the Jesuits, and are generally the first in merit.” The Tournai college, like those at Louvain and Antwerp, was closed in 1795. In 1833, at the instance of the Most Rev. Dr. O’Higgins, Bishop of Ardagh, the Belgian Government consented to transfer to the Irish college in Rome the sum of 4000 francs from the funds of the old Irish college at Tournai.
IN FRANCE.—The colleges in the Peninsula and in Flanders rendered great service to the Church in Ireland. But the most important of all the Irish colleges on the Continent were those established in France.
Douai.—The most ancient amongst these was the college at Douai, founded about 1577 by the Rev. Ralph Cusack. Douai was then included in the Flemish territory subject to Spain, and in 1604 Philip III conferred on the Irish college in that town an endowment of 5000 florins. In 1667 Douai was taken by Louis XIV, and the Irish college there became subject to French authority. For some years means of subsistence were scanty and precarious, but in 1750 the college recovered its prosperity. It was subject to a board of provisors who nominated the rector from a list of three candidates presented by the superiors of the Irish college in Paris. The students, about thirty in number, attended lectures at the University of Douai. In 1793 the college was closed, and in 1795 the buildings, valued at 60,000 francs, were alienated by the French Government.
Lille.—An Irish college was founded at Lille by Ralph Cusack in virtue of letters patent granted in 1610 by the Archduke Albert, and Isabella, Infanta of Spain, then Governors of the Netherlands. Foundations were made for the education of students from the Province of Leinster, more particularly for those from Meath. The right of nominating the rector was vested in the superior of the Irish Capuchins at Bar-sur-Aube. The college suffered much from poverty. Its means of support were derived partly from collections made at the church doors, and partly from fees received for the services the students rendered by carrying the dead at funerals. The study and use of the Irish language was encouraged, and no one unacquainted with that tongue was eligible to the office of rector. The students numbered from eight to ten, exclusively from Leinster. The college, which was valued at 20,000 francs, was confiscated and sold in 1793.
Bordeaux.—In 1603, the Rev. Dermit MacCarthy, a priest of the Diocese of Cork, made his way to Bordeaux with about forty companions. These Irish exiles were hospitably received by Cardinal de Surdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who gave them a house and placed them in charge of the church of St. Eutropius. The rules of the Irish community were approved by the archbishop in 1603, and again in 1609, and were finally ratified by Paul V, in the Bull “In supremo apostolic dignitatis”, April 26, 1618. The Irish students at Bordeaux, like those at Lille, derived their support from alms collected at the doors of the churches in the city, and from fees received for their services at funerals. In 1653, at the conclusion of the War of the Fronde, about 5000 Irish troops, previously in the service of Spain, at the suggestion of Father Cornelius O’Scanlan, rector of the college at Bordeaux, elected to take service under the flag of France. In acknowledgment of the zeal of Father O’Scanlan for the interests of France, the queen regent, Anne of Austria, bestowed on the college an endowment of 1200 livres for the support of ten priests and ten clerics, and conferred on the students the privilege of naturalization to enable them to receive gifts and possess benefices in the kingdom. On the same occasion the title of “Sainte-Anne-la-Royale” was given to the college. Besides the endowment of Anne of Austria, various bequests were made by benefactors; yet in 1766 the total annual revenue of the college amounted only to 2531 francs. From twenty in the seventeenth century, the number of students increased, in the eighteenth, to thirty, and eventually to forty. They attended the classes at the Jesuit college in the city. There were also little colonies of Irish students resident at Toulouse, Auch, Agen, Cahors, Condom, and Perigueux, all subject to the authority of the rector of the Irish college at Bordeaux. The rector of the college was chosen by the votes of the students, and confirmed by the archbishop for a period of three years. The system of appointment by election led to frequent disputes and was eventually abolished. Dr. Robert Barry, Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. Patrick Comerford, Bishop of Waterford, Dr. Cornelius O’Keefe and Dr. Robert Lacy, Bishops of Limerick, Dr. Dominic Bellew, Bishop of Killala, and Dr. Boetius Egan, Archbishop of Tuam, were for some time students at Bordeaux. Here, too, Geoffrey Keating is said to have been a student. The Abbe Edgeworth and Dr. Richard O’Reilly, subsequently Archbishop of Armagh, studied for a short time at Bordeaux, whence the former proceeded to Paris, and the latter to Rome. The last superior of the college was the Rev. Martin Glynn, D.D., a native of the Diocese of Tuam, who suffered death by sentence of the Revolutionary tribunal, at Bordeaux, July 19, 1794. The vice-rector of the college, Dr. Everard, escaped. The students were thrown into prison, but were eventually liberated and put on board a vessel bound for Ireland. The college church, valued at 21,000 francs, was confiscated in 1793. The college was also seized but was saved from confiscation by the vigilance of an Irish priest named James Burke. After the Revolution, all that remained of the property of the college at Bordeaux was placed by decree of the first consul under the control of the board of administrators of the Irish college in Paris. In 1885 the property at Bordeaux was sold for 285,635 francs, and the price invested in French securities in the name of the “Fondations Catholiques Irlandaises en France“.
Toulouse.—From the commencement of the seventeenth century there existed at Toulouse a little colony of Irish ecclesiastical students. The Irish college in that town owes its origin to Anne of Austria, who bestowed upon it, at the same time as upon the college of Bordeaux, the title of “Sainte-Annela-Royale”, with an endowment of 1200 livres a year for the support of twelve priests. The endowment was confirmed by Louis XIV in 1659. At Toulouse the number of students never exceeded ten or twelve, chiefly natives of the Province of Munster. Small though the number was, the system of appointing the rector by the votes of the students led to division and it was judged expedient to submit the rules of discipline to Benedict XIV, who approved them by a letter addressed to the Archbishop of Toulouse on August 31, 1753. The course of studies extended over a period of eight years, after which the students returned to the mission in Ireland. When the French Revolution broke out, the college possessed an annual revenue of 10,000 francs. In 1793 the college buildings and furniture, valued at 36,700 francs, were confiscated and sold by the French Government.
Nantes, on the coast of Brittany, was also the seat of an Irish college founded about 1680. In 1728 a new and more commodious college was constructed, and in 1765, by royal letters patent the priory of St-Crispin was united with it. The number of students, at first about thirty-six, increased to sixty in 1765, and by 1792 it had reached eighty. The college was subject to the University of Nantes, but it had its own staff of professors—two for philosophy, and two for theology—who were obliged each term to report to the authorities of the university the names of their students and the treatises they were to explain. The last rector of the college was Dr. Patrick Byrne, subsequently president of Maynooth College. In 1793 the students of the college were cast into prison and then put on board a vessel which brought them in safety to Cork. The college was not reopened in the nineteenth century. The buildings which escaped alienation were placed under the control of the administrators of the Irish college in Paris. They were sold, with the sanction of the Minister of Public Instruction, in 1857, and the proceeds of the sale (100,000 francs) invested in the name of the “Fondations Catholiques Irlandaises”.
Poitiers.—A college of the Irish Jesuits was founded at Poitiers, in virtue of letters patent granted by Louis XIV, in April, 1674. Five burses for the education of students for the secular priesthood were founded here, two in 1738 by Mrs. John Maher, an Irish lady resident at Barcelona, and three by Jeremiah Crowly, of Cork, in 1735. On the suppression of the Jesuits in France, these five burses were transferred to Paris. The college buildings, valued at about 10,500 francs, were alienated by the French Government. The Abbe Thomas Gould was a student of this college; known as the Missionary of Poitou, he preached with great success in French, and published several works in that language.
The Irish Franciscans had convents in provincial France, at Bar-sur-Aube, at Sedan, and at Charleville, and for some years a convent in Paris.
Paris.—The most important of all the Irish establishments in France, and on the Continent, was the Irish college in Paris. That venerable institution, which has preserved its existence to the present day, owes its origin to the Rev. John Lee, an Irish priest who came to Paris, in 1578, with six companions, and entered the College Montaigu. Having completed his studies he became attached to the church of Saint Severin, and made the acquaintance of a French nobleman, John de l’Escalopier, President of the Parliament of Paris. That charitable man placed at the disposal of the Irish students in Paris a house which served them as a college, of which Father Lee became the first rector about 1605. By letters patent dated 1623, Louis XIII conferred on the Irish priests and scholars in Paris the right to receive and possess property. The Irish college was recognized as a seminary by the University of Paris in 1624, and at that time it had already sent a large number of priests to the mission in Ireland. But the college founded by Father Lee was not spacious enough to receive the numerous Irish students who came to Paris. Some of them continued to find a home in the College Montaigu, others in the College de Boncour, while some, who were in affluent circumstances, resided in the College de Navarre. This state of things attracted the attention of St. Vincent de Paul and others, who sought to provide them with a more commodious residence. Later still, in 1672, it engaged the attention of the bishops of Ireland, who deputed Dr. John O’Molony, Bishop of Killaloe, to treat with Colbert as to the establishment of a new college. What the bishops desired was eventually obtained through the influence of two Irish priests resident in Paris: Dr. Patrick Maginn, formerly first chaplain to Queen Catherine, wife of Charles II of England, and Dr. Malachy Kelly, one of the chaplains of Louis XIV. These two ecclesiastics obtained from Louis XIV authorization to enter on possession of the College des Lombards, a college of the University of Paris founded for Italian students in 1333. They rebuilt the college, then in ruins, at their own expense and became its first superiors. The acquisition of the college was confirmed by letters patent dated 1677 and 1681. Some years later the buildings were extended by Dr. John Farely, and all the Irish ecclesiastical students in Paris found a home in the College des Lombards. The number of students went on increasing until, in 1764, it reached one hundred and sixty. It was therefore found necessary to build a second college. The building was commenced in 1769 in rue du Cheval Vert, now rue des Irlandais, and the junior section of the students was transferred to the new college in 1776.
The Irish college in Paris was open to all the provinces and dioceses of Ireland. The students were divided into two categories, one, the more numerous, consisting of priests already ordained in Ireland, the other of juniors aspiring to orders. Both sections attended the university classes, either at the College de Plessis, or at that of Navarre, or at the Sorbonne. The course of studies extended over six years, of which two were given to philosophy, three to theology, and one to special preparation for pastoral work. The more talented students remained two years longer to qualify for degrees in theology, or in canon law. In virtue of the Bull of Urban VIII, “Piis Christi fidelium”, dated July 10, 1626, and granted in favor of all Irish colleges already established or to be established in France, Spain, Flanders, or elsewhere, the junior students were promoted to orders ad titulum Missions in Hibernia, even extra tempora, and without dimissorial letters, on the presentation of the rector of the college—a privilege withdrawn, as regards dimissorial letters, by Gregory XVI in 1835, and now entirely abrogated by the transfer of Ireland to the jurisdiction of the Consistorial Congregation, in 1908. The students in priestly orders were able to support themselves to a large extent by their Mass stipends. Many burses, too, were founded for the education of students at the Lombard college. Amongst the founders were nine Irish bishops, thirty-two Irish priests, four medical doctors, some laymen engaged in civil or military pursuits, and a few pious ladies. The college was governed in the eighteenth century by four Irish priests called provisors, one from each province of Ireland. They were elected by the votes of the students, and confirmed by the Archbishop of Paris, who, as superior major, nominated one of them to the office of principal. In 1788 the system of government by provisors was abolished, and one rector appointed.
In 1792 the two Irish colleges in Paris, namely the College des Lombards, and the junior college, rue du Cheval Vert, were closed, as were all the other Irish colleges in France. The closing of the colleges on the Continent deprived the bishops of Ireland of the means of educating their clergy. They therefore petitioned the British Government for authorization to establish an ecclesiastical college at home. The petition was granted, and Maynooth College was founded in 1795. In support of their petition the bishops submitted a statement of the number of Irish ecclesiastics receiving education on the Continent when the French Revolution began.
From this statement it appears that out of a total of 478 Irish ecclesiastics receiving education on the Continent, 348 were resident in France, and of these 180 were students in the Irish colleges in Paris. More than one-half, therefore, of all the Irish secular clergy in the eighteenth century were educated in France, and more than one-third in Paris. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, forty students of the Irish college in Paris were raised to the episcopal bench. At the same period Irishmen held an honorable place in the University of Paris. Between 1660 and 1730, more than sixty Irishmen held the office of procurator of the German nation—one of the four sections of the faculty of arts in the ancient university. Dr. Michael Moore, an Irish priest, long held the office of principal of the College de Navarre, and was twice elected rector of the university. Many Irishmen held chairs in the university colleges. Dr. Sleyne was professor at the Sorbonne. Dr. Power was professor at the college of Lisieux; Dr. O’Lonergan at the college of Reims. Dr. John Plunket, Dr. Patrick J. Plunket, and Dr. Flood, superiors or provisors of the Irish college, were in succession royal professors of theology at the College de Navarre. The students of the Irish college in Paris were pronounced opponents of Jansenism. When they returned to their native land, they, like the students of Rome. Salamanca, and Louvain, brought with them “the manners and feelings of cultivated gentlemen and a high sense of clerical decorum”.
After the French Revolution the Irish college in Paris was reestablished by a decree of the first consul, and placed under the control of a Board appointed by the French Government. To it were united the remnants of the property of the other Irish colleges in France which had escaped destruction. The college in Paris lost two-thirds of its endowments owing to the depreciation of French state funds, which had been reduced to one-third consolidated. The total loss sustained by all the Irish foundations in France amounted to 2,416,210 francs, or about $483,000. After the Restoration, the French Government placed at the disposal of the British Government three million and a half sterling, to indemnify British subjects in France for the losses they had sustained during the Revolution. In 1816 a claim for an indemnity was presented on behalf of the Irish college. That claim was rejected by the Privy Council in 1825 on the ground that the college was a French establishment. In 1832 the claim was renewed by Dr. M’Sweeny, rector of the college, with the same result. Another attempt to obtain compensation was made by the Rev. Thomas McNamara in 1870. On May 9 in that year a motion was made in the House of Lords for copies of the awards in the case of the Irish college in 1825 and 1832. This step was followed up by a motion in the House of Commons for the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the claims of the college to compensation for losses sustained during the French Revolution. The motion was introduced on April 30, 1875, by Isaac Butt, M.P. for Limerick, and, after a prolonged discussion, it was negatived by 116 to 54 votes.
After 1805 the administration of the college was subject to a “Bureau de Surveillance” which gave much trouble until it was dissolved by Charles X, in 1824. After that date, the superior, appointed on the presentation of the four archbishops of Ireland, became official administrator of the foundations, subject to the minister of the interior, and at a later period to the minister of public instruction. The students no longer frequented the university. The professors were Irish priests appointed by the French Government on the presentation of the Irish episcopate. In 1858, with the sanction of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, and with the consent of the French Government, the bishops of Ireland placed the management of the college in the hands of the Irish Vincentian Fathers. In recent years the number of students has been between sixty and seventy. They are admitted on the nomination of the bishops, and, after a course of two years in philosophy and four years in theology, they are ordained and return to Ireland. In the nineteenth century the college gave to the Church a long array of good priests and bishops, including Dr. Fitz Patrick, Abbot of Melleray; Dr. Maginn, Coadjutor Bishop of Derry; Dr. Keane, of Cloyne; Dr. O flea and Dr. Fitz Gerald of Ross, Dr. Gillooly of Elphin, and Dr. Croke of Cashel. Dr. Kelly, the present Bishop of Ross, and Dr. MacSherry, vicar Apostolic at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, are also alumni of the college. The present occupant of the see of St. Patrick, H.E. Cardinal Logue, held the chair of dogmatic theology from 1866 to 1874.
In the three hundred years of its existence the college has not been without a share in the ecclesiastical literature of Ireland. Among the rectors of the college have been Thomas Messingham, prothonotary Apostolic, author of the “Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum” (Paris, 1624); Dr. Andrew Donlevy, author of an “Anglo-Irish Catechism” (Paris, 1742); Dr. Miley, author of a “History of the Papal States” (Dublin, 1852); Father Thomas MacNamara, author of “Programs of Sermons (Dublin, 1880), “Encheiridion Clericorum” (1882), and several other similar works. Abbe Mageoghegan, Sylvester O’Hallaran, Martin Haverty, and probably Geoffrey Keating, all eminent Irish historians, were students of the college. Dean Kinane, a student and then a professor in the college, is widely known for his “Dove of the Tabernacle” and numerous other devotional works. More recently, the Rev. John MacGuinness, C.M., vice-rector, has published a full course of dogmatic theology. Amongst the rectors of the college, Dr. John Farely and Dr. John Baptist Walsh, in the eighteenth century, and Dr. MacSweeney and the Rev. Thomas MacNamara, in the nineteenth, have been administrators of marked ability. Since 1873, the administration of the property of the college has been vested in a board created by a decree of the Conseil d’Etat. On that board the Archbishop of Paris was represented by a delegate, and he was also the official medium of communication between the Irish episcopate and the French Government. In December, 1906, the law of separation of Church and State in France came into operation. In the January following, the French Government notified the British Government of its intention to reorganize the Irish Catholic foundations in France so as to bring them into harmony with the recent legislation regarding the Church. It was further stated that the purpose of the Government was to close the Irish college, to sell its immovable property, and to invest the proceeds of the sale, to be applied together with the existing burses for the benefit of Irish students who shall be admitted, on the presentation of the British Ambassador to France, either to the state schools or to the schools of theology which have taken the place of the diocesan seminaries. A plea for the preservation of the college has been presented on behalf of the bishops of Ireland, through the British Foreign Office. The question is still undecided.
The history of the Irish colleges on the Continent is a manifest proof of the tenacity with which Ireland has clung to the Catholic Faith. Without the succession of priests prepared in those colleges, the preservation of the Faith in Ireland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries would have been impossible. At the present day the colleges in Ireland are sufficient to supply the needs of the Church in Ireland, but the colleges on the Continent are still useful as a witness of the past, and they serve to bring a large section of the clergy of Ireland into contact with the life and thought and work of the Church in the ancient Catholic nations on the Continent.
PATRICK BOYLE
Irish Confessors and Martyrs.—The period covered by this article embraces that between the years 1540 and (approximately) 1713. Religious persecution in Ireland began under Henry VIII, when the local Parliament adopted acts establishing the king’s ecclesiastical supremacy, abolishing the pope’s jurisdiction, and suppressing religious houses. The act against the pope came into operation November 1, 1537. Its penalties were sufficiently terrible, but the license of those enforcing it was still more terrible. When they had been at work little over a year the Bishop of Derry wrote to Pope Paul III that the King of England‘s deputy and his adherents, refusing to acknowledge the pope, were burning houses, destroying churches, ravishing maids, robbing and killing unoffending persons. They kill, he said, all priests who pray for the pope or refuse to erase his name from the canon of the Mass, and they torture preachers who do not repudiate his authority. It would fill a book to detail their cruelty. Intolerable as these evils seemed, they were aggravated beyond measure, three years later, when the general suppression of religious houses was superadded. Then ensued the persecution which the Four Masters likened to that of the early Church under the pagan emperors, declaring that it was exceeded by no other, and could be described only by eyewitnesses. The extirpation was so thorough that even remembrance of the victims was effaced. In the published catalogue of Irish martyrs submitted recently to the Congregation of Rites, there are but two cases belonging to Henry’s reign. The absence of records for this period is easily explained. The destruction of all kinds of ecclesiastical property, and documents especially, accounts for much, since few but church-men could make such records; but it is perhaps a more probable explanation that scarcely any were made, as it was neither safe nor practicable to have or transmit what reflected upon government under Tudor despotism. Few memorials could be committed to paper before places of refuge had been secured in foreign countries. Then they were taken down from the lips of aged refugees, and as might be expected they exhibit the vagueness and confusion of dates and incidents to which personal reminiscences are subject when spread over long and unsettled periods.
For the time of the suppression there is a partial narrative in the recital of an old Trinitarian friar, written down by one of his brethren, Father Richard Goldie or Goold (Goldaeus), an Irish professor at the University of Alcali. According to this account, on the first announcement of the king’s design, Theobald (Burke?), provincial of the order, came to Dublin with eight other doctors to maintain the pope’s supremacy. They were cast into prison; Theobald‘s heart was torn from his living body; Philip, a writer, was scourged, put into boots filled with oil and salt, roasted till the flesh came away from the bone, and then beheaded; the rest were hanged or beheaded; Cornelius, Bishop of Limerick, was beheaded there; Cormac was shot and stoned to death at Galway; Maurice and Thomas, brothers-german, hanged on their way to Dublin; Stephen, stabbed near Wexford; Peter of Limerick and Geoffrey, beheaded; John Macabrigus, lay brother, drowned; Raymond, ex-superior, dragged at a horse’s tail in Dublin; Tadhg O’Brien of Thomond, torn to pieces in the viceroy’s presence at Bombriste bridge between Limerick and Kilmallock; the Dublin community, about fifty, put to various deaths; those of Adare, cut down, stabbed, or hanged; those of Galway, twenty, burned to death in their convent or, by another account, six were thrown into a lime-kiln, the rest weighted with stones and cast into the sea; those of Drogheda, forty, slain, hanged, or thrown into a pit; at Limerick, over fifty butchered in choir or thrown with weights into the Shannon; at Cork and Kilmallock, over ninety slain by the sword or dismembered, including William Burke, John O’Hogan, Michael, Richard, and GiollaLrighde. This is the earliest narrative as regards period. It deals only with the Trinitarians. It had the misfortune to be worked up by Lopez, a fanciful Spanish writer, and consequently has incurred perhaps more discredit than it deserves. The promoters of the cause of the Irish martyrs have not extracted any names from it. Nevertheless, the version given by O’Sullevan Bearr in his “Patriciana Decas”, despite many apparent inaccuracies and exaggerations, contains in its main statements a not improbable picture of the experiences of this single order when the agents of rapine and malignity were let loose upon the members. It is as a cry from the torture chamber, expressing the agony of a victim who loses the power to detail accurately the extent of his sufferings or the manner of their infliction.
The first general catalogue is that of Father John Houling, S.J., compiled in Portugal between 1588 and 1599. It is styled a very brief abstract of certain casesand is directed towards canonization of the eleven bishops, eleven priests, and forty-four lay persons whom it commemorates as sufferers for the Faith by death, chains, or exile under Elizabeth. Cornelius O’Devany, the martyred Bishop of Down and Connor, took up the record about the point where Houling broke off, and he continued it until his own imprisonment in 1611. Shortly before that time he forwarded a copy to Father Holywood, S.J., desiring him to take steps to have the lives of those noted therein illustrated at length and preserved from oblivion. O’Devany’s catalogue was in David Rothe‘s hands while he was preparing the “Processus Martyrialis”, published, in 1619, as the third part of his “Analecta”, which still remains a most important contribution to the subject. During the next forty years Copinger (1620), O’Sullevan Bearr (1621 and 1629), Molanus (1629), Morison (1659), and others sent forth from the press works devoted either wholly or in part to advancing the claims of Irish martyrs to recognition and veneration. In 1669 Antony Bruodin, O.S.F., published at Prague a thick octavo volume of about 800 pages, entitled “Propugnaculum Catholicae Veritatis”, a catalogue of Irish martyrs under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Elizabeth, and James, containing notices of about 200 martyrs, with an index of 164 persons whose Christian names come first as in a martyrology. Bruodin based his work on Rothe’s “Analecta”, but he made large additions from other writers, as Good, Bourchier, Gonzaga, Baressus, Sanders, Wadding, Alegambe, and Nadasi, and in particular from a manuscript ascribed to Matthew Creagh, Vicar-General of Killaloe, which had been brought to the Irish Franciscans of Prague in 1660.
Practically nothing was done for about two centuries after Bruodin’s publication. A proposal to take up the cause of Primate Oliver Plunket within a few years of his martyrdom was discountenanced by the Holy See, lest at that critical juncture such action should become an occasion of political trouble in England. After the English Revolution and the commencement of the new era of oppression that succeeded the capitulation of Limerick, it was manifest that any movement towards canonization of the victims of laws still in force would result in merciless reprisals on the part of the ascendancy. At length, in 1829, the last political hindrances were removed by Catholic Emancipation, but over thirty years were allowed to pass unmarked by any action, either because more immediate demands pressed upon the energies of the Catholic community or because, during the long period for which the matter had been laid aside, the sources of trustworthy information had become so inaccessible or forgotten that the task of accumulating evidence seemed too formidable to undertake. In 1861 Dr. Moran, then Vice–Rector of the Irish College, Rome, and subsequently in succession Bishop of Ossory and Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, reopened the question by his life of Oliver Plunket, the first of a series of important historical publications, in which he covered the whole period of Irish persecutions from Henry VIII to Charles II. All these publications were effectively, if not professedly, directed towards hastening the Church‘s solemn recognition of the martyrs. The first of these writings (1861) expressed the hope that the day was not far distant when the long afflicted Church of Ireland would be consoled by the canonization of Oliver Plunket. In 1884, when the last of them, a reissue of Rothe’s “Analecta”, was published, the intermediate advance had been so great that the editor, then Rothe’s successor in Ossory, noted the expression of a wish both in Ireland and abroad “that, although our whole people might justly be regarded as a nation of martyrs, yet some few names, at least, among the most remarkable for constancy and heroism would be laid before the Sacred Congregation of Rites and, if found worthy, be enrolled among the privileged martyrs of Holy Church.” While Dr. Moran was thus engaged, Major Myles O’Reilly also entered the long neglected field, and in 1868 he published a collection of memorials in which he brought together, from all the original sources his great industry could reach, biographies of those who suffered for the Faith in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. This collection was made with both zeal and discrimination; it was the first general compilation since Bruodin’s, and, coming down to a later date, it contained twice the number of notices in the former one. As a result, in great measure, of these several publications, the case was brought to such a point, about ten years after the reissue of Rothe’s “Analecta”, that the ecclesiastical authorities were in a position to make preparations for holding the processus ordinarius informativus, the diocesan inquiry which is a preliminary in the process of canonization. The work of collecting evidence, greatly facilitated by the previous labors of Moran and O’Reilly, was entrusted to Father Denis Murphy, S.J. He, unhappily, did not live to submit his testimony; but before his death he had reduced to order a great mass of materials extracted from a larger number of writers than had been used by O’Reilly. The number of individual notices is, however, much less, since Father Murphy excluded, with one or two exceptions, all those whose trials did not culminate in death. His materials were published in 1896, under the title of “Our Martyrs”, and the record begun by Father Houling was thus, after three hundred years, completed by his brother Jesuit in form to be submitted in a regular process of canonization.
The usual practice of conducting the preliminary process in the diocese where the martyrs suffered would have entailed the erecting of a tribunal in every diocese in Ireland, a course attended with no advantages. The Archbishop of Dublin, therefore, at the united request of all the Irish bishops, accepted the responsibility of conducting a general investigation for the whole country. But, before further progress could be made, certain unforeseen causes of delay arose which were not removed until the end of the year 1903. In December of that year the vice-postulator issued his requests for the attendance of witnesses in the February following. The initial session was opened by the Archbishop of Dublin, February 15, 1904. Between that date and August 3, when the taking of evidence in Ireland was completed, sixty sessions had been held. The testimony of Cardinal Moran was taken by commission in Sydney When it arrived in Ireland meetings were resumed, October 23, and continued for some twenty further sessions to complete the return, a transcript of the evidence with exhibits of books and documents. This work was brought to a conclusion at Christmas, and on February 5, 1905, the full return of the inquiry was delivered to the Congregation of Rites. The number of sessions held was about eighty, in all of which the Archbishop of Dublin presided. Evidence was taken in respect of about three hundred and forty persons, with a view to establish the existence of a traditional belief among learned and pious Catholics that many persons suffered death for the Catholic Faith in Ireland under the penal laws; that these persons did, in fact, suffer martyrdom in defense of the Catholic Faith and of the pope’s spiritual authority as Vicar of Christ; and that there is a sincere desire among Irish Catholics, in Ireland and elsewhere, to see these martyrs solemnly recognized by the Church. The chief portion of the evidence was necessarily that derived from records, printed or written. In addition, witnesses testified to the public repute of martyrdom, and traditions to that effect preserved in families, religious orders, various localities, and the country at large, with a particular statement in every case as to the source of the information furnished by the witness. Subsequent to this inquiry the further minor process (processiculus), to collect writings attributed to some of the martyrs, was held January-March, 1907.
The investigation of the claims to the title of martyr made for those who suffered under the Irish penal enactments since 1537, is attended by difficulties that do not arise in the case of their fellow-sufferers in England, difficulties due to the historical situation and to the character of the available evidence. Not more than one-third of Ireland was subject to the rule of Henry VIII when he undertook to detach the island from the Catholic Church. The remainder was governed by hereditary lords under native institutions. The king’s deputy at times obtained acknowledgment of the over-lordship supposed to be conferred by the Bull “Laudabiliter”; but the acknowledgment was so little valued that the population was commonly classified as the king’s subjects and the Irish enemies, not, as yet, the Irish rebels. The Church, however, was the Church of Ireland, not the Church of the English Pale, and the claim to Supreme Headship of the Church entailed the effective reduction of the whole island to civil obedience, which, as then understood, required acceptance of the whole English system of laws and manners. Hence, it is not always easy to discern how far the fate of an individual resulted from his fidelity to religion, and how far from defense of ancestral institutions. Again, the evidence is not always satisfactory, for reasons already mentioned. The public records are very defective, as in a country that has experienced two violent revolutions, but the loss so caused might possibly be overestimated. No large proportion of those put to death had been brought before a regular court. There was a general immunity from consequences which encouraged captains of roving bands and stationary garrisons, provost-martials, and all that class, to carry out the intention of the law without its forms. In such cases there are no records. During the year of the Armada a Spanish ship made prize of a Dublin vessel bound for France. A Cistercian monk and a Franciscan friar were found on board. They said they were the sole survivors of two large monasteries in the North of Ireland which had been burned with the rest of the inmates. There seems to be no other mention of this atrocity.
The list which follows (p. signifying priest; 1., layman) includes the names of those persons only in respect of whom evidence was taken at the inquiry held in Dublin. The case of Primate Oliver Plunket has already been conducted successfully through the Apostolic Process by Cardinal Logue, his successor:
Under King Henry VIII.—1540: The guardian and friars, Franciscan Convent, Monaghan, beheaded. 1541: Robert and other Cistercian monks, St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, imprisoned and put to death; as the Cistercians of Dublin surrendered their house and its possessions peaceably, there is possibly confusion as to this instance.
Under Queen Elizabeth.—1565: Conacius Macuarta (Conn McCourt) and Roger MacCongaill (McConnell), Franciscans, flogged to death, Armagh, December 16, for refusing to acknowledge the queen’s supremacy. 1575: John Lochran, Donagh O’Rorke, and Edmund Fitzsimon, Franciscans, hanged, January 21, Downpatrick; Fergall Ward, Franciscan guardian, Armagh, hanged, April 28, with his own girdle. 1577: Thomas Courcy, vicar-general at Kinsale, hanged, March 30; William Walsh (q.v.) Cistercian, Bishop of Meath, died, January 4, in exile at Alcala. 1578: Patrick O’Hely (q.v.), Bishop of Mayo, and Cornelius O’Rorke, p., Franciscans, tortured and hanged, August 22, Kilmallock; David Hurley, dean of Emly, died in prison; Thomas Moeran, dean of Cork, taken in the exercise of his functions and executed. 1579: Thaddaeus Daly and his companion, O.S.F., hanged, drawn, and quartered at Limerick, January 1. The bystanders reported that his head when cut off distinctly uttered the words: “Lord, show me Thy ways.” Edmund Tanner (q.v.), S.J., Bishop of Cork, died, June 4, in prison at Dublin; John O’Dowd, p., O.S.F., refused to reveal a confession, put to death at Elphin by having his skull compressed with a twisted cord; Thomas O’Herlahy (q.v.), Bishop of Ross. 1580: Edmund O’Donnell (q.v.), p., S.J., March 16, Cork (but the year should be 1575 and the name perhaps O’Donnell); Laurence O’Moore, p., Oliver Plunkett, gentleman, and William Walsh or Willick, an Englishman, tortured and hanged, November 11, after the surrender of Dun-an-oir in Kerry; Daniel O’Neilan p., O.S.F., fastened round the waist with a rope and thrown with weights tied to his feet from one of the town-gates at Youghal, finally fastened to a mill-wheel and torn to pieces, March 28. He is obviously the person whom Mooney commemorates under the name O’Duillian, assigning the date, April 22, 1569, from hearsay; Daniel Hanrichan, Maurice O’Scanlan, and Philip O’Shee (O’Lee), priests, O.S.F., beaten with sticks and slain, April 6, before the altar of Lislachtin monastery, Co. Kerry; the prior at the Cistercian monastery of Graeg, and his companions. Murphy, quoting O’Sullevan, says the monastery was Graiguenamanagh; O’Sullevan names the place Seri-pons, Jerpoint.
1581: Nicholas Nugent, chief justice, David Sutton, John Sutton, Thomas Eustace, John Eustace, William Wogan, Robert Sherlock, John Clinch, Thomas Netherfield, or Netterville, Robert Fitzgerald, gentleman of the Pale, and Walter Lakin (Layrmus), executed on a charge of complicity in rebellion with Lord Baltinglass; Matthew Lamport, described as a parish priest (pastor) of Dublin Diocese, but more probably a baker (pistor) of Wexford, executed for harboring Baltinglass and Father Rochford, S.J., Robert Meyler, Edward Cheevers, John O’Lahy, and Patrick Canavan, sailors of Wexford, hanged, drawn, and quartered, July 5, for conveying priests, a Jesuit, and laymen out of Ireland; Patrick Hayes, ship-owner of Wexford, charged with aiding bishops, priests, and others, died in prison; Richard French, p., Ferns Diocese, died in prison; Nicholas Fitzgerald, Cistercian, hanged, drawn, and quartered, September, at Dublin.
1582: Phelim O’Hara and Henry Delahoyde, O.S.F., of Moyne, Co. Mayo, hanged and quartered, May 1; Thaddaeus O’Meran, or O’Morachue, O.S.F., guardian of Enniscorthy; Phelim O’Corra (apparently Phelim O’Hara, above); Aeneas Penny, parish priest of Killatra (Killasser, Co. Mayo), slain by soldiers while saying Mass, May 4; Roger O’Donnellan, Cahill McGoran, Peter McQuillan, Patrick O’Kenna, James Pillan, priests, and Roger O’Hanlon (more correctly McHenlea, in Curry), lay brother, O.S.F., died, February 13, Dublin Castle, but the date can scarcely be correct for all; Henry O’Fremlamhaidh (anglicized Frawley); John Wallis, p., died, January 20, in prison at Worcester; Donagh O’Reddy, parish priest of Coleraine, hanged and transfixed with swords, June 12, at the altar of his church.
1584: Dermot O’Hurley (q.v.), Archbishop of Cashel; Gelasius O’Cullenan, O.Cist., Abbot of Boyle, and his companion, variously named Eugene Cronius and Hugh or John Mulcheran (? Eoghan O’Maoilchiarain), either Abbot of Trinity Island, Co. Roscommon, or a secular priest, hanged, November 21, at Dublin; John O’Daly, p., O.S.F., trampled to death by cavalry; Eleanor Birmingham, widow of Bartholomew Ball, denounced by her son, Walter Ball, Mayor of Dublin, died in prison; Thaddaeus Clancy, September 15, near Listowel.
1585: Richard Creagh (q.v.), Archbishop of Armagh, poisoned, October 14, in the Tower of London—he is included amongst the 242 Praetermissi in the article English Confessors and Martyrs; Maurice Kenraghty (q.v.), p.; Patrick O’Connor and Malachy O’Kelly, O.Cist., hanged and quartered, May 19, at Boyle.
1586: Maurice, or Murtagh, O’Brien, Bishop of Emly, died in prison at Dublin; Donagh O’Murheely (O’Murthuile, wrongly identified with O’Hurley) and a companion, O.S.F., stoned and tortured to death at Muckross, Killarney. 1587: John Cornelius, O.S.F., of Askeaton; another John Cornelius, S.J., surnamed O’Mahony, born in England of Irish parents from Kinelmeky, Co. Cork, is included among the venerabiles of the English list; Walter Farrell, O.S.F., Askeaton, hanged with his own girdle. 1588: Dermot O’Mulrony, p., O.S.F., Brother Thomas, and another Franciscan of Galbally, Co. Limerick, put to death there March 21; Maurice Eustace (q.v.), Jesuit novice, hanged and quartered, June 9, Dublin; John O’Molloy, Cornelius O’Dogherty, and Geoffrey Farrell, Franciscan priests hanged, drawn, and quartered, December 15, at Abbeyleix; Patrick Plunkett, knight, hanged and quartered, May 6, Dublin; Peter Miller, B.D., Diocese of Ferns, tortured, hanged, and quartered, October 4, 1588; Peter (or Patrick) Meyler, executed at Galway; not-withstanding the different places of martyrdom assigned, these two names may be those of the same person, a native of Wexford executed at Galway; Patrick O’Brady, O.S.F., prior at Monaghan—Murphy, on slender grounds, supposes him to be the guardian put to death in 1540, but Copinger and after him Curry, in his “Civil Wars in Ireland“, state that six friars were slain in the monastery of Moynihan (Monaghan) under Elizabeth; Thaddus O’Boyle, guardian of Donegal, slain there, April 13, by soldiers. 1590: Matthew O’Leyn, p., O.S.F., March 6, Kilcrea; Christopher Roche, 1., died, December 13, under torture, Newgate, London. 1591: Terence Magennis, Magnus O’Fredliney or O’Todhry, Loughlin og Mac O’Cadha (? Mac Eochadha, Keogh), Franciscans of Multifarnham, died in prison. 1594: Andrew Strich, p., Limerick, died in Dublin Castle. 1597: John Stephens, p., Dublin province, apparently chaplain to the O’Byrnes of Wicklow, hanged and quartered, September 4, for saying Mass; Walter Fernan, p., torn on the rack, March 12, at Dublin. 1599: George Power, Vicar-General of Ossory, died in prison. 1600: John Walsh, Vicar-General of Dublin, died in prison at Chester; Patrick O’Hea, 1., charged with harboring priests, died in prison, December 4, Dublin—probably the Patrick Hayes of 1581 (supra); James Dudall (Dowdall, q. v.,), died either November 20 or August 13, Exeter; Nicholas Young, p., died, Dublin Castle.
1601: Redmond O’Gallagher, Bishop of Derry, slain by soldiers, March 15, near Dungiven; Daniel, or Donagh, O’Mollony, Vicar-General of Killaloe, died of torture, April 24, Dublin Castle; John O’Kelly, p., died, May 15, in prison; Donagh O’Cronin, clerk, hanged and disemboweled, Cork; Bernard Moriarty, dean of Ardagh and Vicar-General of Dublin, having his thighs broken by soldiers, died in prison, Dublin. 1602: Dominic Collins, lay brother, S.J., hanged, drawn, and quartered, October 31, Youghal. The following Dominicans suffered under Elizabeth (1558-1603), but the dates are uncertain: Father MacFerge, prior, and twenty-four friars of Coleraine, thirty-two members of the community of Derry, slain there the same night, two priests and seven novices of Limerick and Kilmallock, assembled in 1602 with forty Benedictine, Cistercian, and other monks, at Scattery Island in the Shannon to be deported under safe conduct in a man-of-war, were cast overboard at sea. To this year, 1602, seems to belong the death of Eugene MacEgan, styled Bishop-designate of Ross, of which he was vicar Apostolic, mortally wounded while officiating in the Catholic army. There was no Catholic army on foot in 1606, at which date his name appears in the official list. He was buried at Timoleague.
(3) Under James I and Charles I (1604-1648).—1606: Bernard O’Carolan, p., executed by martial law, Good Friday; Eugene O’Gallagher, abbot, and Bernard O’Trevir, prior, of the Cistercians of Assaroe, Ballyshannon, slain there by soldiers; Sir John Burke of Brittas, County Limerick, for rescuing and defending with arms a priest seized by soldiers, executed at Limerick, December 20, 1606. The date is accurately known from contemporary letters printed in Hogan’s “Ibernia Ignatiana”. 1607: Niall O’Boyle, O.S.F., beheaded or hanged, January 15, Co. Tyrone; John O’Luin, O.P., hanged at Derry; Pat-rick O’Derry, p., O.S.F., hanged, drawn, and quartered at Lifford (but according to Bruodin, January 6, 1618); Francis Helam or Helan, p., O.S.F., apprehended saying Mass in Drogheda, and imprisoned; Dermot Bruodin, O.S.F., tortured at Limerick, released at the intervention of the Earl of Thomond, he died of years and labors at Ennis (9 August, 1617, according to Bruodin). 1608: Donagh (in religion, William) O’Luin, O.P., prior of Derry, hanged and quartered there. 1610: John Lune, p., Ferns Diocese, hanged and quartered, November 12, Dublin. 1612: Cornelius O’Devany (q.v.), O.S.F., Bishop of Down and Connor, executed with Patrick O’Lochran, p., Cork Diocese, February 1, Dublin. 1614: William McGillacunny (MacGiolla Coinigh), O.P., executed at Coleraine. 1617: Thomas Fitzgerald, p., O.S.F., died in prison, July 12, Dublin. 1618: John Honan, p., O.S.F., tortured, hanged, and quartered, October 14, Dublin. 1621: Francis Tailler, alderman, Dublin, died a prisoner in the Castle, 30 January; James Eustace, O. Cist., hanged and quartered, September 6. 1628: Edmund Dungan, Bishop of Down and Connor, died, November 2, Dublin Castle. 1631: Paul (Patrick) Fleming, p., O.S.F., put to death by heretics, November 13, at Benesabe, Bohemia, with his companion, Matthew Hore. 1633: Arthur MacGeoghegan, p., O.P., hanged, drawn, and quartered, 27 November, Tyburn. 1639: John Meagh, p., S.J., shot, 31 May, by the Swedish army near Guttenberg, Bohemia. 1641: Peter O’Higgin, O.P., prior at Naas, hanged, March 24, Dublin. 1642: Philip Clery, p.; Hilary Conroy p., O.S.F., but most probably this is the Hilary Conroy, O.S.F., chaplain to Ormond’s regiment, hanged at Gowran in 1650 by the Cromwellians; Fergal Ward, O.S.F., and Cornelius O’Brien, hanged on board ship in the Shannon, by Parliamentarians, October; Francis O’Mahony, O.S.F., guardian at Cork, tortured and hanged, regaining consciousness, he was again hanged with his girdle; Thomas Aquinas of Jesus, p., O.D.C., hanged, July 6, Drogheda; Angelus of St. Joseph, O.D.C.; Robert (in religion, Malachy) O’Shiel, p., O.Cist., hanged, May 4, Newry; Edmund Hore and John Clancy, priests, Waterford Diocese, put to death, March, at Dungarvan; Raymund Keogh, p., O.P., Stephen Petit, O.P., prior at Mullingar, shot while hearing confessions on the battlefield; Cormac Egan, lay brother, O.P. 1643: Peter of the Mother of God, lay brother, O.D.C. 1644: Cornelius O’Connor and Eugene O’Daly, O.SS.T., drowned at sea by a Parliamentarian commander, January 11; Christopher Ultan or Donlevy, p., O.S.F., died in Newgate, London. 1645: Hugh MacMahon, 1., and Conor Maguire, Baron of Enniskillen, executed for complicity in the outbreak of the Confederate War; Henry White, p., hanged at Rathconnell, Co. Meath (but before this year, if by Sir C. Coote, as stated); Edmund Mulligan, p., O. Cist., in July, near Clones, slain by Parliamentarians; Malachy O’Queely (q.v.), Archbishop of Tuam; Thaddaeus O’Connell, p., O.S.A., executed by Parliamentarians after the battle of Sligo; John Flaverty, p., O.P. 1647: At the storming of the Rock of Cashel by Inchiquin, September 15, Richard Barry, p., O.P., William Boyton, p., S.J., Richard Butler, p., O.S.F., James Saul, lay brother, O.S.F., Elizabeth Carney, Sister Margaret, a Dominican tertiary, Theobald Stapleton, p., Edward Stapleton, p., Thomas Morrissey and many others, priests and women, were slain in the church. 1648: Gerald FitzGibbon, cleric, and David Fox, lay brother at Kilmallock, Dominic O’Neaghten, lay brother, Roscommon, Peter Costello, p., sub-prior, Straid, Co. Mayo, all Dominicans; Andrew Hickey, p., O.S.F., hanged near Adare.
(4) Commonwealth (1649-1659).—1649: Robert Netterville, p., S.J., died at Drogheda, June 19, of a severe beating with sticks; John Bath, p., S.J., and his brother Thomas, secular priest, Dominic Dillon, O.P., prior at Urlar, Richard Oveton, O.P., prior at Athy, Peter Taaffe, O.S.A., prior at Drogheda, slain in Drogheda massacre; Bernard Horumley (? Gormley), p., O.S.F., hanged, Drogheda; Raymund Stafford, p., Paul Synnott, p., John Esmond, p., Peter Stafford, p., Didacus Cheevers and Joseph Rochford, lay brothers, Franciscans, slain in Wexford massacre; James O’Reilly, p., O.P., slain near Clonmel; William Lynch, p., O.P., hanged. 1650: Bcetius Egan, O.S.F., Bishop of Ross, celebrated for exhorting the garrison of Carrigadrehid Castle to maintain their post against Broghill, dismembered and hanged; Miler Magrath (Father Michael of the Rosary), p., O.P., hanged, Clonmel; Francis Fitzgerald, p., O.S.F., hanged, Cork; Walter de Wallis, p., O.S.F., and Antony Musus (? Hussey), p., O.S.F., hanged, Mullingar; John Dormer, O.S.F., died in prison, Dublin; Nicholas Ugan, or Ulagan, O.S.F., hanged with his girdle; Thomas Plunkett and twelve other Francis-cans, Eugene O’Teman, O.S.F., flogged and cut to pieces by soldiers. 1651: Franciscans: Denis O’Neilan, p., hanged, Inchicronan, Co. Clare; Thaddaeus O’Carrighy, p., hanged near Ennis; Hugh McKeon, p., died in prison, Athlone; Roger de Mara (MacNamara), p., shot and hanged, Clare Castle; Daniel Clanchy and Jeremiah O’Nerehiny (Nerny), lay brothers, Quin, hanged; Philip Flasberry, hanged near Dublin; Francis Sullivan, p., shot in a cave, Co. Kerry, December; William Hickey, p., hanged; Dominicans: Terence Albert O’Brien (q.v.), O.P., Bishop of Emly; John Wolfe, p., hanged, Limerick; John O’Cuilin (Collins), p., beheaded; William O’Connor, prior at Clonmel, beheaded, and Thomas O’Higgin, p., hanged, Clonmel; Bernard O’Ferrall, p., slain, his brother Laurence, p., hanged, Longford; Vincent Gerald Dillon, chaplain to Irish troops in England, died in prison, York; Ambrose Aeneas O’Cahill, p., cut to pieces by cavalry, Cork; Donagh Dubh (Black) and James Moran, lay brothers; laymen: Louis O’Ferrall, died in prison, Athlone; Charles O’Dowd, hanged; Donagh O’Brien, burned alive; Sir Patrick Purcell, Sir Geoffrey Galway, Thomas Strich, mayor, Dominic Fanning, ex-mayor, Daniel O’Higgin, hanged after surrender of Limerick; Henry O’Neill, Theobald de Burgo. 1652: Secular priests: Roger Ormilius (? Gormley) and Hugh Garrighy, hanged, Co. Clare; Cornelius MacCarthy, Co. Kerry; Bernard Fitzpatrick, Ossory Diocese; Franciscans hanged: Eugene O’Cahan, guardian at Ennis, Sliabh Luachra, Anthony Broder, deacon, near Tuam, Bonaventure de Burgo, Nielan Locheran, p., Derry. Anthony O’Ferrall, p., Tulsk, John O’Ferrall; Edmund O’Bern, p., O.P., beheaded after torture, Jamestown; laymen hanged: Thaddaeus O’Conor Sligo, Boyle; John O’Conor Kerry, Tralee; Thaddaeus O’Conor of Bealnamelly in Connaught; Bernard Mc-Briody; Edmund Butler, Dublin; Brigid D’Arcy, wife of Florence Fitzpatrick; Conn O’Rorke, slain after quarter given. 1653: Dominicans: Thaddaeus Mori-arty, prior at Tralee, hanged, Killarney; Bernard O’Kelly, p. or lay brother, Galway; David Roche, p., sold into slavery, St. Kitts; Honoria Burke and her maid, Honoria Magan, tertiaries, Burrishoole; Daniel Delany, P.P., Arklow, hanged, Gorey. 1654: Bernard Conney, O.S.F., died in Galway jail; Mary Roche, Viscountess Fermoy, Cork; William Tirry, p., Augustinian hermit, probably in Co. Cork. 1655: Daniel O’Brien, dean of Ferns, Luke Bergin, O. Cist., and James Murchu, hanged, April 14.
The Restoration Onwards.—1665: Raymund O’Moore, p., O.P., Dublin; 1679: Felix O’Conor, p., O.P., Sligo; 1691: Gerald Fitzgibbon, p., O.P., Listowel; 1695: John O’Murrough, p., O.P., Cork; 1704: Clement O’Colgan, p., O.P., Derry, 1707: Daniel McDonnell, p., O.P., Galway; Felix McDowell, p., O.P., Dublin; 1711 (or thereabouts): James O’Hegarty, p., Derry Diocese; 1713: Dominic McEgan, p., O.P., Dublin.
Uncertain Dates.—Forty Cistercians of Monasternenagh, Co. Limerick, may be the monks mentioned at 1602, though the manner of death is stated differently; Daniel O’Hanan, 1., died in prison; Donagh O’Kennedy, Donagh Serenan, Fulgentius Jordan, Raymund O’Malley, John Tullis, and Thomas Deir, Augustinians, Cork, 1654; James Chevers, O.S.F., James Roche, O.S.F., John Mocleus (? Mockler), O.S.F., John O’Loughlin, O.P., two Dominican fathers, Kilmallock. apparently the lay brothers Fitzgibbon and Fox, 1648; Michael Fitzsimon, 1.; Conn O’Kiennan, hanged, drawn, and quartered, 1615; Daniel O’Boyle, O.S.F.; Dermot MacCarrha (MacCarthy), p.; Donchus O’Falvey, p., perhaps the Daniel Falvey, friar, remanded at Kerry Lent Assizes, 1703; John MacConnan, p., possibly the John Orman (Conan) of Copinger, executed by martial law, Dublin, 1618, and the John Honan, O.S.F., 1617 (the correct date is 1618—see above); John O’Grady, p.; Thomas Fleming, 1.; Lewis O’Laverty, p., hanged, drawn, and quartered, 1615.
CHARLES MCNEILL