TIMES PASTWith Willie White
TO BEGIN, we have to look at the start of Irish Catholic martyrdom, which began with the religious persecution of Irish Catholics by King Henry VIII, who was also Lord of Ireland around 1533.
This was just after his excommunication by Pope Clement VII for refusing to submit to Papal authority, with regard to the Pope’s refusal to allow Henry divorce Catherine of Aragon. Henry then declared himself leader of the Church in England, enabling him to make his own decisions on the divorce.
From then up to 1714, hundreds of Irish clergy and others were martyred. Many records have been destroyed - some by authorities to cover their deeds - while more were lost or conveniently mislaid over the intervening years. That being said, I could not document every martyr, so I have selected just a few who, I believe, will adequately explain the persecution of that period.
Outside Saint Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin stands a statue of Margaret Ball and her grandson-in-law Francis Taylor. Margaret Bermingham was born near Skryne, County Meath in 1515. At the age of 15, she married the extremely wealthy Alderman Bartholomew Ball of Balrotherey. The couple had ten children, of whom five survived to adulthood. Ball was elected lord mayor of Dublin in 1553, so Margaret became lady mayoress.
When Queen Elizabeth I imposed the religious settlement in 1570, Margaret’s eldest son Walter took on the new religion, an action which greatly disappointed her. She repeatedly asked him to change his mind and invited him to meet a special friend. Walter arrived early with a company of soldiers, and when he discovered the friend was Archbishop of Cashel Dermot O’Hurley, he had his mother arrested and imprisoned in a dungeon in Dublin Castle. When confronted by family members seeking Margaret’s freedom, he declared that she should be executed but he made sure she was spared. He said that if she took the Oath of Supremacy (an oath of allegiance to the monarch of England which, if refused, was considered treason) she would be released. She refused to deny her Catholic beliefs.
Her second son Nicholas was elected mayor of Dublin and he supported her. Nicholas visited every day, bringing food, clothing and candles. However, he could do nothing to obtain her release, as Walter’s position was a crown appointment, leaving him with more authority. Margaret died in 1584 and is buried in St Audeon’s Cemetery. Though she could have changed her will, she failed to do so, leaving her estate to Walter.
Margaret Ball was beatified in 1992. Her grandson-in-law Francis Taylor, born in Swords in 1550, would follow the same road. He was elected mayor of Dublin in 1595. Around 1614, he was placed in a dungeon in Dublin Castle for exposing fraud in elections to the Irish House of Commons. He refused to deny his Catholic faith up to his death on 29 January 1621. He too was beatified, along with his great-grandmother and Archbishop O’Hurley by Pope John Paul II on 27 September 1992.
Archbishop Hurley was born in Ballyneety, County Limerick in 1530 and had been on the run for about two years, while lodging with Baron Thomas Fleming at Slane. One night, during a dinner attended by noblemen, it was noticed who was in their midst. This was reported to the lord chancellor and lord treasurer, who immediately ordered Fleming to bring Hurley to them in chains or face the consequences.
The archbishop had left Slane but was followed by Fleming, who arrested him at the castle in Carrick-on-Suir, which was home to Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormonde, who tried but failed to force his release. Brought to the capital, he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle and tortured in an attempt to convert him to the Protestant faith.
He declared he would never reject or disown his own faith. Bound hand and foot, he was tossed to the ground, where a pair of top boots were filled with a mixture of salt, oil, bitumen, pitch, tallow and boiling water. His legs were then forced into the boots. They were then placed on iron bars and cruelly roasted over a fire. This went on for more than an hour, with the contents of the boots roasting Hurley’s legs. When the boots were removed, taking the roasting flesh with them, not even the smallest bone was covered.
A few weeks later, on 7 June 1584, on learning that Butler was coming to Dublin and knowing his power, the torturers decided to hang the archbishop. He was taken outside the city early and quietly. Only two people - one a good friend of the archbishop - realised what was happening and followed. Before being hanged, he clasped his friend, and it is said that he left the sign of the cross in indelible red on the friend’s hand. He was then executed.
Another Irish bishop who was beatified on that day in 1992 was Patrick O’Hely (or Healy) who, as far as I can calculate, would have been born in 1544 or ’45 in Dromahair, County Leitrim. He joined the Franciscans at an early age and attended university at Alcala in Spain, where he was a leading student.
Summoned to Rome in 1576 and appointed bishop of Mayo (now parts of Tuam, and Killala), he had permission to administer any neighbouring diocese without a bishop. In the autumn of 1579, he landed in Askeaton, along with another Franciscan, Fr Conn O’Rourke.
They made their way to Limerick and sought shelter at the Earl of Desmond’s castle. This was provided by the earl’s wife in his absence.
She proceeded to give the information to the then-mayor of Limerick, who had them arrested three days later and sent to lord justice William Drury at Kilmallock, who demanded they disown their faith. Despite extreme torture, neither would accede and remained silent. They were then sentenced to death by martial law and executed just outside the gates of the town. Fr O’Rourke was also one of the 17 Irish martyrs beatified in 1992.
Oliver Plunkett was born on 1 November 1629 in Loughcrew, Oldcastle, County Meath. His parents were wealthy and, from an early age, Oliver aspired to being a priest. With that intention, he travelled to Rome in 1647, where he was admitted to the Irish College. He was ordained in 1654. This was the year after Cromwell had completed his Irish victory. It was not a good time to return home, as Catholicism was banned and the clergy were being executed. He petitioned to stay in Rome, which was allowed, where he served in the College of Propaganda Fide, and from there was appointed bishop of Armagh on 30 November.
He returned to Ireland on 7 March 1670 and immediately set about restoring the Catholic Church to something like it had been. He built schools and tackled the problem of drunken clergy, suggesting that if a priest could mend his alcoholic ways, he would be a saint. He established a Jesuit college in Drogheda. In 1673, he opposed the enactment of the Test Act (English penal laws, which served as a religious test for those seeking public office, which imposed restrictions on Catholics who failed to profess the established church). His college was levelled to the ground and he was forced into hiding.
Oliver refused to flee, even though there was a price on his head. However, he was arrested on 6 December 1679 and imprisoned in Dublin Castle. Lord Shaftsbury, knowing Plunkett would never be convicted in Ireland, transferred him to Newgate prison in London.
His first trial failed, the grand jury finding no case proven. His second trial was what is known as a kangaroo or sham court, with Justice Sir Francis Pemberton finding him guilty of high treason for promoting the Roman faith and sentencing him to be hanged, drawn and quartered - a decision described by Lord Campbell as a disgrace to himself and his country.
On 1 July, Archbishop Oliver Plunkett became the last Roman Catholic martyr to be executed in England, when the sentence was carried out at Tyburn. His remains were exhumed in 1683. The head was brought to Rome and then to Armagh before reaching Drogheda, where it has rested in St Peter’s Church since 29 June 1921. He was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first Irish saint for 700 years.
To finish, I will just mention the Wexford martyrs Patrick Cavanagh, Matthew Lambert, Robert Tyler, Edward Cheevers and two unknowns who, in 1851, were hanged, drawn and quartered in Wexford when found guilty of treason for their part in the escape of Viscount Baltinglass James Eustace, and then refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. They, too, were beatified in 1992.
We may return to their story in the future.