MEMOIRS OF THE MOST REV. OLIVER PLUNKET, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, AND PRIMATE OF ALL IRELAND
Dublin: James Duffy, 1861. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Decorated green cloth. lxviii, 404p. Spine is sunfaded. Corners are bent. Cracking present within. Otherwise, a clean and tight book in good condition. Item #140936
Oliver Plunkett (also spelt Oliver Plunket) (Irish: Oilibhéar Pluincéid), (1 November 1625 – 1 July 1681) was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland who was the last victim of the Popish Plot. He was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, thus becoming the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years. On the enactment of the Test Act in 1673, to which Plunkett would not agree for doctrinal reasons, Plunkett went into hiding, travelling only in disguise, and refused a government edict to register at a seaport to await passage into exile. For the next few years he was largely left in peace since the Dublin government, except when put under pressure from the English government in London, preferred to leave the Catholic bishops alone. In 1678 the so-called Popish Plot, concocted in England by clergyman Titus Oates, led to further anti-Roman Catholic action. Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin was arrested, and Plunkett again went into hiding. The Privy Council in London was told that Plunkett had plotted a French invasion. The moving spirit behind the campaign is said to have been Arthur Capell, the first Earl of Essex, who had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and hoped to resume the office by discrediting the Duke of Ormonde. However Essex was not a ruthless or unprincipled man and his later plea for mercy suggests that he had never intended that Plunkett should actually die. Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years,[1] and the first of the Irish martyrs to be beatified. For the canonisation, the customary second miracle was waived. He has since been followed by 17 other Irish martyrs who were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992. Among them were Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley, Margaret Ball, and the Wexford Martyrs. As a spectacle alone, the rally and Mass for St Oliver Plunkett on London's Clapham Common was a remarkable triumph. As the Common was invaded for a celebration of the 300th anniversary of Plunkett's martyrdom, Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, twenty enrobed bishops and a number of abbots stood on a stage beneath a scaffolding shelter on 1 July 1981. Ó Fiaich had flown there in a helicopter with Plunkett’s body. This occasion attracted thousands of pilgrims to the park. In 1997 Plunkett was made a patron saint for peace and reconciliation in Ireland, adopted by the prayer group campaigning for peace in Ireland, "St. Oliver Plunkett for Peace and Reconciliation"
Price: $200.00