STEP BACK IN TIME
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STEP BACK IN TIME
Click Here to Contact me Jennifer Walsh
or Click
Here to view slideshow's of my photo's
Feel free to view or sign my guest book or guest map
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the following information is taken from the local ABC news 1991/1992 edition The last half of the 16th century was a turbulent period in Irish history. in 1558 Elizabeth Tudor succeeded her sister Mary as queen of England. Mary's five year reign was most traumatic. Mary's struggle to bring back the old order was to earn her the title of bloody Mary. during all this Elizabeth, though only in her early twenties, kept her head down. having narrowly escaped execution in the tower she knew that her position as queen was by no means secure. therefore, on her accession, she lost no time in claiming all the rights of the monarch, including that of head of the church. this consolidated her position at home among the majority of her subjects but made her the implacable foe of the pope. meanwhile, in the same year 1558, Garrett Fitzgerald succeeded his father as earl of Desmond. though his position seemed secure at the time of his succession, the inadequacies of his character and the politics of the time dictated that, where Elizabeth had succeeded in making her position secure, his world was to collapse in ruins around him. in trying to achieve their respective aims, Elizabeth Tudor and Garrett Fitzgerald both used religion as a weapon. the persecutions which followed Elizabeth's accession to the throne were to produce the martyrs who are buried in the chapter in askeaton abbey. the two Franciscans bishop Patrick O'healy of Mayo and father Conn O'Rourke of Breffni were among fifteen martyrs of the Elizabethan and Cromwellian persecutions to be canonized in 1992. Patrick O'healy was born about 1543 in county leitrim or county sligo. in 1561 he was a Franciscan novice. his superiors sent him abroad to be trained, he studied humanities, philosophy and theology in Spain and was ordained priest, probably at cuenca. in 1575 he was in Rome pleading the cause of James FitzMaurice. Gregory x111 appointed him bishop of mayo, a small diocese in the west of Ireland in 1576. he left with FitzMaurice for Spain and Portugal to organize a crusade. after an initial journey from Lisbon full of mishaps, O'healy separated himself from FitzMaurice early in 1578 and went to Paris to prepare for his spiritual mission to Ireland. he spent almost a year there. about February 1579 he set out with Conn O'Rourke for Brittany to get a ship to Ireland. Fr. Conn O'Rourke was the son of Brian Ballach O'Rourke, chief of breifne O'Rourke. born 1549 he entered the Franciscan observant at the friary of Dromahaire, which had been founded by his grandfather in 1508. he was sent to France to finish his studies in 1576 and his board and lodging in Paris were paid for by FitzMaurice. in the summer of 1579 o'healy and O'Rourke sailed from Brittany and landed in Smerwick in county Kerry. on arrival they set out to visit the earl of desmond, whose wife Eleanor received them in his absence. proceeding then to limerick they found that she had betrayed them to the mayor of limerick, James goold, who captured them. they were imprisoned in limerick ant then interrogated by lord justice sir William Drury, lord president of Munster. at some stage the bishop was tortured. Drury then tried bribery to wealen his resolve but was unsuccessful. to cut through legal difficulties Drury invoked martial law, and they were tried without jury and without defense, and were condemned to be hanged. the sentence was carried out at Kilmallock, about twenty miles from Limerick, about august 13th they were taken there under military escort with hands and feet tied, after the bishop had addressed the bystanders they were hanged . a week later John Fitzgerald of Desmond buried them in the Askeaton Friary. they were executed because they refused to renounce the papacy and take the oath of supremacy
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