Report Paul Murphy
When news of Oliver Plunkett’s appointment as the new Archbishop of Armagh filtered back from Rome to Ireland in 1669 the clergy of the diocese were less than amoured, a seminar in Drogheda has been told. Specifically, they didn’t want him because he was a Meath man!
The seminar – Oliver Plunkett in Historical Context – and organised by Drogheda Civic Trust at St Peter’s Church of Ireland, was opened by Denis Cummins, Chairperson Drogheda Civic Trust and was attended by the Mayor of Drogheda Cllr Paddy McQuillan who said that the saint’s name was synonymous with the town of Drogheda. The seminar was part of the year of events marking the 400th anniversary of Plunkett’s birth.
Fr Iggy O’Donovan
Fr Iggy O’Donovan OSA, above, who delivered a talk “Oliver Plunket, a biographical sketch” said that as Oliver Plunkett prepared to enter his diocese a portend of things to come soon appeared. “Members of the Armagh clergy let it be known that they didn’t want a Meath man. There was local politics even then. However, he was pretty much accepted once he had come”.
While he had spent his young life in Meath, part of the Anglo-Irish Plunkett clan, he had spent 23 years in Rome. The Ireland he came back to was post-Cromwellian. There had been a “tsunami” of persecution, dispossessions, confiscations, plantations. He was to spend nine years as archbishop, and during that time made trips to Dublin and around the country and that appeared to be tolerated, Fr O’Donovan said.
The Mayor of Drogheda Cllr Paddy McQuillan.
There were times when “the temperature went up” and and in 1673 an order went out that all clergy should “leave the realm” . Plunkett was very disciplined and he decided not to leave, many times going into hiding, including in South Armagh.
Some things never change, Fr O’Donovan said. “There was a major row with the archbishop of Dublin on the primacy. Some argued that the Primate of All Ireland had jurisdiction over the whole island. However, Dublin claimed the same. Rome had a compromise which I’ve never fully understood – so now we have the Primate of All Ireland here and the Primate of Ireland in Dublin!”.
The church then was in poor condition, he said. Discipline and organisation was lacking. Study, qualifications, documentation was non-existent. “The level of knowledge of the clergy went beyond poor. They were, literally, ignorant, uneducated”. Fr O’Donovan provoked laughter in his audience when he referred to Plunkett’s views on some of the monasteries and convents within his jurisdiction. “He wrote ‘in Drogheda there is a convent of the Augustinians with six friars of mediocre quality’”.
Sean Collins
Sean Collins, above, who spoke on the theme “A Saint for a Neighbour” said that the Drogheda City Status Group would have been pleased with Plunkett’s description of Drogheda. In a letter dated April 1670, Oliver Plunkett had reported to Rome “County Louth has two important cities. The first is Drogheda, Dreat in the Irish, Drogheda in English and Pontana in Latin. There are about six thousand souls in it. The majority being of English origin and Protestant but there are three residences of religious. The Dominican residence has only three friars, that of the Franciscans has only four friars, and the third that of the Capuchins has three friars”.
Sean Collins said that Plunkett found allies in the most unusual places. Henry Moore, who had served in the Irish House of Commons as the member of parliament for Ardee between 1639 and 1643 when he succeeded to his father’s viscountcy. In 1653 he was forced to pay £6,953 to the commonwealth government in order to retain his estates under the Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652.
In 1661 he was created Earl of Drogheda in the Peerage of Ireland. Moore was a high-ranking Protestant and Plunkett wrote this about him “Allows me a public church etc with bells in his estates which are exempt from the jurisdiction of the royal ministers. Nine times I was accused before the viceroy’s courts because of the schools and the exercise of foreign jurisdiction. But this benign gentleman has always reserved the cases to himself, and thus they faded out”.
Denis Cummins, Chairperson Drogheda Civic Trust who opened the seminar on Oliver Plunkett at St Peter’s Church of Ireland.
Other speakers at the seminar included Dr Paul Smith, Trinity College, Dr Eamon Darcy, University College Maynooth and Dr Annaleigh Margey, Dundalk Institute of Technology. Louth TD Erin McGreehan also attended the event.
