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 IRISH CONFESSORS AND MARTYRS

The guardian and friars, Franciscan Convent, Monaghan were beheaded in 1540.

Robert and other Cistercian monks of St Mary's Abbey, Dublin, were imprisoned and put to death in 1541.

Conacius Macuarta (Conn McCourt) and Roger MacCongaill (McConnell), Franciscans, were flogged to death at Armagh, December 16, 1565, for refusing to acknowledge the queen's supremacy.

John Lochran, Donagh O'Rorke, and Edmund Fitzsimon, Franciscans, were hanged on January 21, 1575, at Downpatrick.

Fergall Ward, Franciscan guardian of Armagh, was hanged with his own girdle on April 28, 1575.

Thomas Courcy, vicar-general at Kinsale, was hanged on March 30, 1577.

William Walsh, Cistercian, Bishop of Meath, died on January 4, 1577 in exile at Alcala.

Patrick O'Hely, Bishop of Mayo, and Cornelius O'Rorke, priest, Franciscans, were tortured and hanged on August 22, 1578, at Kilmallock.

David Hurley, dean of Emly, died in prison in 1578.

Thomas Moeran, dean of Cork, was taken in the exercise of his functions and executed in 1578.

Thaddaeus Daly and his Franciscan companion were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Limerick on January 1, 1579. The bystanders reported that his head when cut off distinctly uttered the words: "Lord, show me thy ways."

Edmund Tanner, S.J., Bishop of Cork, died on June 4, 1579 in prison at Dublin.

John O'Dowd, priest, O.S.F. refused to reveal a confession. He was put to death at Elphin by having his skull compressed with a twisted cord in 1579.

Thomas O'Herlahy, Bishop of Ross, died in 1579.

Edmund MacDonnell, priest, S.J. died on March 16, 1580 at Cork (the year should be 1575 and the name perhaps O'Donnell).

Laurence O'Moore, priest, Oliver Plunket, gentleman, and William Walsh (or Willick), an Englishman, were tortured and hanged on November 11, 1580, after the surrender of Dun-an-oir in Kerry.

Daniel O'Neilan priest, O.S.F. was fastened round the waist with a rope and thrown with weights tied to his feet from one of town gates at Youghal, finally fastened to a mill wheel and torn to pieces on March 28, 1580. 

Daniel Hanrichan, Maurice O'Scanlan, and Philip O'Shee (O'Lee), priests, O.S.F. were beaten with sticks and slain on April 6, 1580 before the altar of Lislachtin monastery, Co. Kerry.

The prior at the Cistercian monastery of Graeg, and his companions were killed in 1580.

[Gelasius O'Cullenan, Abbot of Boyle, was hanged and quartered on November 21, 1580. With him suffered Eugene O'Mulkeeran.]

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, and Walter Lakin (Layrmus) were executed on a charge of complicity in rebellion with Lord Baltinglass in 1581.

Matthew Lamport, described as a parish priest (pastor), of Dublin Diocese, but more probably a baker (pistor), of Wexford, was executed for harbouring Baltinglass and Father Rochford, S.J. in 1581.

Robert Meyler, Edward Cheevers, John O'Lahy, and Patrick Canavan, sailors of Wexford, were hanged, drawn, and quartered on July 5, 1581, for conveying priests, a Jesuit, and laymen out of Ireland.

Patrick Hayes, shipowner of Wexford, charged with aiding bishops, priests, and others, died in prison in 1581.

Richard French, priest, Ferns Diocese, died in prison in 1581.

Nicholas Fitzgerald, Cistercian, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Dublin (in September 1581).

Phelim O'Hara and Henry Delahoyde, O.S.F., of Moyne, Co. Mayo, were hanged and quartered on May 1, 1582.

Thaddaeus O'Meran, or O'Morachue, O.S.F., guardian of Enniscorthy, died in 1582.

Aeneas Penny, parish priest of Killatra (Killasser, Co. Mayo), was slain by soldiers while saying Mass on May 4, 1582.

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 on February 13, 1582, in Dublin Castle.

Henry O'Fremlamhaidh (Frawley) died in 1582.

John Wallis, priest, died on January 20, 1582 in prison at Worcester.

Donagh O'Reddy, parish priest of Coleraine, was hanged and transfixed with swords on June 12, 1582 at the altar of his church.

[Nicholas Skerrett, Archbishop of Tuam, was imprisoned and died from the consequences on June 6, 1583.]

Dermot O'Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, died in 1584.

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, were hanged on November 21, 1584, at Dublin.

John O'Daly, priest, O.S.F., was trampled to death by cavalry in 1584.

Eleanor Birmingham, widow of Bartholomew Ball, was denounced by her son, Walter Ball, Mayor of Dublin, and died in prison in 1584.

Thaddaeus Clancy died on September 15, 1584, near Listowel.

Richard Creagh, Archbishop of Armagh, was poisoned on October 14, 1585 in the Tower of London. 

Maurice Kenraghty, priest; Patrick O'Connor and Malachy O'Kelly, O.Cist. were hanged and quartered on May 19, 1585 (at Boyle).

Maurice, or Murtagh, O'Brien, Bishop of Emly, died in prison at Dublin in 1586.

Donagh O'Murheely (O'Murthuile, wrongly identified with O'Hurley) and a Franciscan companion were stoned and tortured to death at Muckross, Killarney, in 1586.

John Cornelius, O.S.F., of Askeaton, died in 1587. (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., was hanged with his own girdle in 1587.

Dermot O'Mulrony, priest, O.S.F., Brother Thomas, and another Franciscan of Galbally, Co. Limerick, were put to death there on March 21, 1588.

Maurice Eustace, Jesuit novice, was hanged and quartered on June 9, 1588, at Dublin.

John O'Molloy, Cornelius O'Dogherty, and Geoffrey Farrell, Franciscan priests, were hanged, drawn, and quartered on December 15, 1588, at Abbeyleix.

Patrick Plunkett, knight, was hanged and quartered on May 6, 1588, in Dublin.

Peter Miller, B.D., Diocese of Ferns, was tortured, hanged, and quartered on October 4, 1588.

Peter (or Patrick) Meyler was executed at Galway; notwithstanding the different places of martyrdom assigned, these two names may be those of the same person, a native of Wexford executed at Galway in 1588.

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, Thaddaeus O'Boyle, guardian of Donegal, was slain there on April 13, 1588 by soldiers.

Matthew O'Leyn, priest, O.S.F., died on March 6, 1590.

Christopher Roche, layman, died on December 13, 1590, under torture at Newgate, London.

Terence Magennis, Magnus O'Fredliney or O'Todhry, Loughlin og Mac O'Cadha (Mac Eochadha, Keogh), Franciscans of Multifarnham,  died in prison in 1591.

Andrew Strich, priest, of Limerick, died in Dublin Castle in 1594.

John Stephens, priest, Dublin province, apparently chaplain to the O'Byrnes of Wicklow, was hanged and quartered on September 4, 1597 for saying Mass.

Walter Fernan, priest, was torn on the rack on March 12, 1597, at Dublin.

George Power, Vicar-General of Ossory, died in prison in 1599.

John Walsh, Vicar-General of Dublin, died in prison at Chester in 1600.

Patrick O'Hea, layman, was charged with harbouring priests; he died in prison on December 4, 1600, at Dublin. 

James Dudall (Dowdall) died either November 20 or August 13, 1600, at Exeter.

Nicholas Young, priest, died in Dublin Castle in 1600.

Redmond O'Gallagher, Bishop of Derry, was slain by soldiers on March 15, 1601, near Dungiven.

Daniel, or Donagh, O'Mollony, Vicar-General of Killaloe, died of torture on April 24, 1601, in Dublin Castle.

John O'Kelly, priest, died in prison on May 15, 1601.

Donagh O'Cronin, clerk, was hanged and disembowelled at Cork in 1601.

Bernard Moriarty, dean of Ardagh and Vicar-General of Dublin, having his thighs broken by soldiers, died in prison, at Dublin in 1601.

Dominic Collins, lay brother, S.J., was hanged, drawn, and quartered on October 31, 1602, at Youghal.

To the 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.

The following Dominicans suffered under Elizabeth (1558-1603), but the dates are uncertain: Father MacFerge, prior, and 24 friars of Coleraine, 32 members of the community of Derry, slain there the same night, two priests and seven novices of Limerick and Kilmallock, assembled in 1602 with 40 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.

Bernard O'Carolan, priest, was executed by martial law on Good Friday 1606.

Eugene O'Gallagher, abbot, and Bernard O'Trevir, prior, of the Cistercians of Assaroe, Ballyshannon, were slain there by soldiers in 1606.

Sir John Burke of Brittas, County Limerick, for rescuing and defending with arms a priest, was seized by soldiers and executed at Limerick, December 20, 1606. The date is accurately known from contemporary letters printed in Hogan's "Ibernia Ignatiana".

Niall O'Boyle, O.S.F., was beheaded or hanged on January 15, 1607, in Co. Tyrone.

John O'Luin, O.P., was hanged at Derry in 1607.

Patrick O'Derry, priest, O.S.F., was hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1607, at Lifford (but according to Bruodin, on January 6, 1618).

Francis Helam or Helan, priest, O.S.F., was apprehended saying Mass in Drogheda, and imprisoned in 1607.

Dermot Bruodin, O.S.F., tortured at Limerick, was released at the intervention of the Earl of Thomon. He died of years and labours at Ennis (August 9, 1617, according to Bruodin).

Donagh (in religion, William) O'Luin, O.P., prior of Derry, was hanged and quartered there in 1608.

John Lune, priest, of Ferns Diocese, was hanged and quartered on November 12, 1610, at Dublin.

Cornelius O'Devany, O.S.F., Bishop of Down and Connor, was executed with Patrick O'Lochran, priest, Cork Diocese, February 1, 1612, at Dublin.

William McGillacunny (MacGiolla Coinigh), O.P., was executed at Coleraine in 1614.

Thomas Fitzgerald, priest, O.S.F., died in prison on July 12, 1617, at Dublin.

John Honan, priest, O.S.F., was tortured, hanged, and quartered on October 14, 1618, at Dublin.

Francis Tailler, alderman, of Dublin, died a prisoner in the Castle on January 30, 1621.

James Eustace, O.Cist., was hanged and quartered on September 6, 1621.

Edmund Dungan, Bishop of Down and Connor, died on November 2, 1628 in Dublin Castle.

Paul (Patrick) Fleming, priest, O.S.F., was put to death by heretics on November 13, 1631, at Benesabe, Bohemia, with his companion, Matthew Hore.

Arthur MacGeoghegan, priest, O.P., was hanged, drawn, and quartered on November 27, 1633, at Tyburn.

John Meagh, priest, S.J., was shot on May 31, 1639, by the Swedish army near Guttenberg, Bohemia.

Peter O'Higgin, O.P., prior at Naas, was hanged on March 24, 1641, at Dublin. 

Philip Clery, priest, died in 1642.

Hilary Conroy, priest, O.S.F., died in 1642 (but most probably this is the Hilary Conroy, O.S.F., chaplain to Ormond's regiment, who was hanged at Gowran in 1650 by the Cromwellians).

Fergal Ward, O.S.F. and Cornelius O'Brien were hanged on board a ship in the Shannon, by parliamentarians, in October 1642.

Francis O'Mahony, O.S.F., guardian at Cork, was tortured and hanged in 1642, and upon regaining consciousness, he was again hanged with his girdle.

Thomas Aquinas of Jesus, priest, O.D.C., was hanged on July 6, 1642, at Drogheda.

Angelus of St Joseph, O.D.C., and Robert (in religion, Malachy) O'Shiel, priest, O.Cist. were hanged on May 4, 1642, at Newry.

Edmund Hore and John Clancy, priests, of Waterford Diocese, were put to death in March 1642, at Dungarvan.

Raymund Keogh, priest, O.P., and Stephen Petit, O.P., prior at Mullingar, were shot in 1642 while hearing confessions on the battlefield.

Cormac Egan, lay brother, O.P., died in 1642.

Peter of the Mother of God, lay brother, O.D.C., died in 1643.

Cornelius O'Connor and Eugene O'Daly, O.S.T., were drowned at sea by a Parliamentarian commander on January 11, 1644.

Christopher Ultan or Donlevy, priest, O.S.F., died in Newgate, London, in 1644.

Hugh MacMahon, layman, and Connor Maguire, Baron of Enniskillen, were executed for complicity in the outbreak of the Confederate War in 1645.

Henry White, priest, was hanged at Rathconnell, Co. Meath, in or before 1645.

Edmund Mulligan, priest, O.Cist., died near Clones; he was slain by Parliamentarians in July 1645.

Malachy O'Queely, Archbishop of Tuam, died in 1645.

Thaddaeus O'Connell, priest, O.S.A., was executed by Parliamentarians after the battle of Sligo in 1645.

John Flaverty, priest, O.P., died in 1645.

At the storming of the Rock of Cashel by Inchiquin on September 15, 1647, Richard Barry, priest, O.P., William Boyton, priest, S.J., Richard Butler, priest, O.S.F., James Saul, lay brother, O.S.F., Elizabeth Carney, Sister Margaret, a Dominican tertiary, Theobald Stapleton, priest, Edward Stapleton, priest, Thomas Morrissey and many others, priests and women, were slain in the church.

Gerald FitzGibbon, cleric, and David Fox, lay brother at Kilmallock, Dominic O'Neaghten, lay brother, Roscommon, Peter Costello, priest, sub-prior, Straid, Co. Mayo, all Dominicans; Andrew Hickey, priest, O.S.F., were hanged near Adare in 1648.

Robert Netterville, priest, S.J., died at Drogheda on June 19, 1649 of a severe beating with sticks.

John Vath, priest, 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, were slain in the Drogheda massacre in 1649.

Bernard Horumley (Gormley), priest, O.S.F., was hanged at Drogheda in 1649.

Raymond Stafford, priest, Paul Synnott, priest, John Esmond, priest, Peter Stafford, priest, Didacus Cheevers and Joseph Rochford, lay brothers, Franciscans, were slain in the Wexford massacre in 1649.

James O'Reilly, priest, O.P., was slain near Clonmel in 1649.

William Lynch, priest, O.P., was hanged in 1649.

Boetius Egan, O.S.F., Bishop of Ross - celebrated for exhorting the garrison of Carrigadrehid Castle to maintain their post against Broghill - was dismembered and hanged in 1650.

Miler Magrath (Father Michael of the Rosary), priest, O.P., was hanged at Clonmel in 1650.

Francis Fitzgerald, priest, O.S.F., was hanged at Cork in 1650.

Walter de Wallis, priest, O.S.F., and Antony Musaeus (Hussey), priest, O.S.F., were hanged at Mullingar in 1650.

John Dormer, O.S.F., died in prison at Dublin in 1650.

Nicholas Ugan, or Ulagan, O.S.F., was hanged with his girdle in 1650.

Thomas Plunkett and 12 other Franciscans, and Eugene O'Teman, O.S.F., were flogged and cut to pieces by soldiers in 1650.

In 1651, the following Franciscans suffered: Denis O'Neilan, priest, was hanged at Inchicronan, Co. Clare; Thaddaeus O'Carrighy, priest, was hanged near Ennis; Hugh McKeon, priest, died in prison, Athlone; Roger de Mara (MacNamara), priest, was shot and hanged in Clare Castle; Daniel Clanchy and Jeremiah O'Nerehiny (Nerny), lay brothers, were hanged at Quin; Philip Flasberry was hanged near Dublin; Francis Sullivan, priest, was shot in a cave in Co. Kerry in December; William Hickey, priest, was hanged.

In 1651, the following Dominicans suffered: Terence Albert O'Brien, O.P., Bishop of Emly; John Wolfe, priest, was hanged, Limerick; John O'Cuilin (Collins), priest, was beheaded; William O'Connor, prior at Clonmel, was beheaded, and Thomas O'Higgin, priest, was hanged at Clonmel; Bernard O'Ferrall, priest, was slain, his brother Laurence, priest, was hanged at Longford; Vincent Gerald Dillon, chaplain to Irish troops in England, died in prison at York; Ambrose Aeneas O'Cahill, priest, was cut to pieces by cavalry at Cork; Donagh Dubh (Black) and James Moran, lay brothers; laymen, suffered, Louis O'Farrall died in prison at Athlone; Charles O'Dowd was hanged; Donagh O'Brien was burned alive; Sir Patrick Purcell, Sir Geoffrey Galway, Thomas Strich, mayor, Dominic Fanning, ex-mayor, and Daniel O'Higgin were hanged after surrender of Limerick; Henry O'Neill and Theobald de Burgo died.

Roger Ormilius (Gormley) and Hugh Garrighy - both secular priests - were hanged in Co. Clare in 1652.

Cornelius MacCarthy died in Co. Kerry in 1652.

Bernard Fitzpatrick of Ossory Diocese died in 1652.

These Franciscans were hanged in 1652: Eugene O'Cahan, guardian at Ennis, Sliabh Luachra, Anthony Broder, deacon, near Tuam, Bonaventure de Burgo, Nielan Locheran, priest, at Derry.

Anthony O'Ferrall, John O'Ferrall; Edmund O'Bern, O.P., priests, were beheaded after torture in Jamestown in 1652.

These laymen were hanged in 1652: Thaddaeus O'Connor Sligo, Boyle; John O'Conor Kerry, Tralee; Thaddaeus O'Conor of Bealnamelly in Connaught; Bernard McBriody; Edmund Butler, Dublin; Brigid D'Arcy; and Conn O'Rorke was slain.

These Dominicans suffered in 1653: Thaddaeus Moriarty, prior at Tralee, was hanged at Killarney; Bernard O'Kelly, priest or lay brother, at Galway; David Roche, priest, was sold into slavery to St Kitts, where he died; Honoria Burke and her maid, Honoria Magan, tertiaries, Burrishoole; Daniel Delany, P.P., Arklow, were hanged at Gorey.

Bernard Conney, O.S.F., died in Galway jail in 1654, Mary Roche, Viscountess Fermoy, died at Cork; William Tirry, priest, Augustinian hermit, died probably in Co. Cork.

Daniel O'Brien, dean of Ferns, Luke Bergin, O.Cist., and James Murchu were hanged on April 14, 1655.

1665: Raymund O'Moore, priest, O.P., Dublin;

1679: Felix O'Connor, priest, O.P., Sligo;

[1681: Oliver Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, was executed at Tyburn on July 11.]

1691: Gerald Fitzgibbon, priest, O.P., Listowel;

1695: John O'Murrough, priest, O.P., Cork;

1704: Clement O'Colgan, priest, O.P., Derry;

1707: Daniel McDonnell, priest, O.P., Galway;

1707: Felix McDowell, priest, O.P., Dublin;

1711 (or thereabouts): James O'Hegarty, priest, Derry Diocese;

1713: Dominic McEgan, priest, O.P., Dublin.

Furthermore, forty Cistercians of Monasternenagh, Co. Limerick died at an uncertain date, but they may be the monks mentioned at 1602, though the manner of death is stated differently.

Daniel O'Hanan, layman, died in prison.

Donagh O'Kennedy, Donagh Serenan, Fulgentius Jordan, Raymund O'Malley, John Tullis, and Thomas Deir, Augustinians, died at Cork in 1654.

James Chevers, O.S.F.,died at an uncertain date, as well as James Roche, O.S.F., John Mocleus (Mockler), O.S.F., John O'Loughlin, O.P., two Dominican fathers, at Kilmallock.

Apparently the lay brothers Fitzgibbon and Fox, died in 1648; Michael Fitzsimon, layman, and Conn O'Kiennan, were hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1615.

Daniel O'Boyle, O.S.F., Dermot MacCarrha (MacCarthy), priest; Donchus O'Falvey, priest, perhaps he is the Daniel Falvey, friar, remanded at Kerry Lent Assizes, in 1703; John MacConnan, priest, is possibly the John Oonan (Conan) of Copinger, executed by martial law, at Dublin, in 1618, and the John Honan, O.S.F., 1617 or 1618. John O'Grady, priest, and Thomas Fleming, layman, suffered at an uncertain date, and Lewis O'Laverty, priest, was hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1615.

Sources:

O'Reilly, Memorials of those who suffered for the Catholic Faith in Ireland (London, 1868)

Murphy, Our Martyrs (Dublin, 1896); Irish Ecclesiastical Record, XIII (1903), 421

Moran, Historical Sketch of the Persecutions suffered by the Catholics of Ireland under Cromwell and the Puritans (Dublin, 1884)

Idem, History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin (Dublin, 1864); Spicilegium Ossoriense, I (Dublin, 1873), III (Dublin, 1884)

Rothe, Analecta Nove et Mira, ed. 

Moran, (Dublin, 1884)

O'Sullivan Bearr, Patriciana Decas (Madrid, 1629)

Bruodin, Propugnaculum Catholicæ Veritatis (Prague, 1669)

Information from Catholic Encyclopedia and Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints. A comprehensive article can be found here:

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08163a.htm

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