(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p.443) He was a native of Wexford, and a pious and prudent priest. He was imprisoned in Dublin, and for three years in succession he had to endure the filth and other miseries of the place, with robbers for his constant companions, because he defended the Catholic faith strenuously.  At last he was sentenced to die, and was sent to Wexford to be executed in the usual way. But he died in the prison before he was taken out to be executed in public, May 5th, 1581. See also Holing, Rothe, Copinger, Molanus, and Lynch. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

From Hartry’s Synopsis, p. 278 Hel was born in lveagh, Co.Down, in Ulster.  He asked to join the Cistercians, and was admitted by Br. Patrick Barnwell,[1] Abbot, for the monastery of Mellifont, and was professed under the name of Malachy.  His great humility and obedience, addition to the other gifts of grace of a perfect monk, filled all with wonder. It was the good pleasure of his superior to intrust to Malachy the care of souls under the jurisdiction of the monastery of St. Mary of Newry, then without a pastor to care for them. This he discharged for 7 years with a fellow monk, Br. Malachy O’Kea. When his brother in religion died, a secular priest, a relative of his, was joined with him.  About that time Scots,[2] united in arms with the English, almost depopulated Ulster and advanced to Newry, where the noble ruins of the monastery[3] are still to be seen.  F. Malachy laboured with his fellow priest to keep up the courage of the Governor to defend the place, especially the very strong castle on behalf of the Catholics.  The enemy suddenly got possession of the gate of the town.  Fr. Malachy and the priest entered the castle, and urged the captain and soldiers to defend the stronghold for the sake of the church and the honour of their country.  Fear seized on the captain, and he betrayed the castle, though it was strong and well manned. It is said he was promised quarter for himself, his soldiers, and the priests. But it turned out differently.  For as soon as the enemy got Possession of the place, they seized both priests and threw them into prison, and condemned to death that very night. The following day, the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross,[4] in 1642, Fr. Malachy was hanged quite naked from the beams of a wooden bridge.  The soldiers then fired two shots at him while he was half-dead. The secular priest was hanged. The bodies of the martyrs were thrown into the river. Soon after they were found on the bank and buried by the Catholics in clean winding-shee (a shroud). That night soldiers stripped the bodies of their covering, leaving them naked above ground. Afterwards they were buried in the cemetery of the monastery.  When Br. Malachy was led in chains to his execution, looking round at the soldiers, in his joy he burst into a laugh and when the executioner asked why he laughed, he replied ‘I rejoice at the things that were said to me : we shall go into the house of the Lord!’ While engaged in prayer, and with joy in his heart, he received the prize of martyrdom.  O’Mellan says Rory O’Shiel, a monk of the Order of St. Bernard, and a priest, was executed, and thrown from the bridge of Newry into the sea.’[5] This narrative is confirmed by a letter[6] of Monroe, dated May 15th, 1642, addressed to Leslie.  After capturing Newry he says 'We entered into examination of the townsmen if all were papists and the indifferent being severed from the bad, whereof sixty with two priests were shot and hanged.’[7] Colonel Henry O’Neill in his Relation ‘Newry was surrendered upon the first summons by a fresh-water Governor upon mercy, which proved so merciless that a great many of the clergy and laity were hanged, killed, and drowned about the bridge of the town.’[8] 1 See account of him in Thumphalia, p. 283 2 Monroe came to Ireland in April, 1642, with 2500 Scotch. Leslie the following August. The Scotch troops in Ulster amounted then to 10000 men. 3 Founded for Cistercians about 1150 by Maurice Macloughlin, King of Ireland. See Triumphalia, Introd. Xiv. no trace remains. 4 May 4th 5 Irish MS., in the library of the RI. Academy, 23. H.7 6 Aphor. Disc., iii. 196 7 Appendix to Aphor. Disc., i. 421 8 Ibid., iii. 127 Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Rothe’s Analecta, p. 482) HE was born in Kilmallock in Limerick, & died in Clonmel. He was chaplain to the Earl of Desmond and when the Earl joined the chieftains, Maurice acted with the Earl; to join in the unity of the Catholic faith those who were divided into factions, and to combat Satan in their hearts.’[2] He fell into the hands of Murtogh Swiney, a deserter from his lord, with whom he had been a leader of galloglasses.[5]  Maurice was seized and handed over to the English soldiers, and then to the President of Munster. Maurice was for more than a year in chains in the prison at Clonmel.  He urged whoever approached him to draw near to God; some he exhorted to penance, others to constancy in faith, others to restitution of property which they detained unjustly, others to almsgiving, all to piety.  He dwelt most of all on the unity of the Catholic faith, outside which there can be no salvation, as formerly all outside the ark were shipwrecked and drowned.  ‘Behold, heaven is the Lord’s thy God, the heaven of heavens, the earth, and all things that are therein : and yet the Lord hath been closely joined to your fathers, and loved them, and chose their seed after them, that is to say, you, out of all nations, as this day it is proved.’[6] About the feast of Easter, in the year 1585, Victor White,[7] a respectable citizen of Clonmel, was anxious to satisfy the piety of his neighbours, who were very eager to make their confession and receive Holy Communion from his hand.  He went to the head jailer, and for a bribe obtained that Maurice should be allowed out to pass that night in his house. The money was paid down, and the prisoner was let out, the other being security for his return.  But the wretched spy sought to sell the pious host, the whole neighbourhood, and the life of the priest to the President, who came there just at this time.  He went and told the President, that at the request of Victor, he allowed Maurice, to pass that night in his house; and that the Catholics were told Mass would be celebrated there the next day. When Masstime was drawing near, while Maurice was still hearing confessions, after setting up the altar: the soldiers rushed in and seized on the people.  The terror of the Catholics  was great. The women and children hid; others escaped by the roof, back doors, or through windows.  Some broke legs, some arms; but fear banished pain. The priest thrust himself into a heap of straw. The soldiers tried this with their swords and pikes. They wounded the priest in the thigh, but he uttered no sound and escaped.  The master of the house was cast into prison. These two noble friends, Victor and Maurice, vied with each other, the one to conquer, the other to die.  When Maurice heard that Victor was in great peril; an exchange took place and Victor was set free, Maurice was bound hand and foot, placed in fetters, and cast prison,  Sentence of death was pronounced upon him, though he could have prevented its execution if he abjured the true faith and took the oath asserting the Queen’s supremacy.  Some say that he was hanged until he was half-dead, and his head then cut off and his body divided into four parts. So says the Manuscript History of the Irish Martyrs: When he came to the place of execution, he turned to the people, and addressed them some pious words as far as time allowed; in the end he asked all the Catholics to pray for him, and he gave them his blessing.  He was hanged from the gallows, and taken down half-alive, his head was cut off, and his body was divided into four parts,  .......... In this way he went to his crucified Lord, April 30”, in the year of our Lord 1585. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Bruodin’s Propugnaculum, p. 427) FERGALL WARD, a native of Tyrconnell,1 a member of the Seraphic Order of St. Francis, was a very eloquent preacher and most observant of poverty.  He had laboured zealously for three years in the vineyard of the Lord, and was then promoted to be Guardian of the convent of Armagh about the year 1575. At this time the plague of heresy, introduced by Elizabeth, was raging through-out Ulster. Ward opposed it as a skilful physician.  Wherefore he was seized by the Ministers of Elizabeth, and no regard being had for his great age or religious character, he was scourged cruelly and beaten.  At length when the holy martyr, persevering in his good purpose, exhorted his executioners to return to a better life, by order of the ministers he was hanged with his own girdle on the 28th of April, 1575, as Father John Good2 writes, or in 1565, as Wadding states in his work on the Martyrs of the Order. See also Ward, Wadding, and Hueber. 1 The present Co. Donegal 2 He came to Ireland with F. Edmund McDonaough, S.J., of whom more later. The title of this work is Theatre of Catholic and Protestant Religion ; Douay, 1620. There is not a copy of it in this country, so far as I can find. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

HE was born of a noble family, was a priest, and vicar of the diocese of Kilialoe.  This brave soldier and truly apostolic pastor did not fear to expose his life to danger when the wild beasts were laying the vineyard waste, opposing the heretics by word and deed.  He was seized by the heretical soldiers in a certain part of Ormond which he was visiting as pastor, his hands were tied behind his back as if he were a robber, and he was led on foot to Dublin, in the midst of heretical soldiers who were as wicked as those who crucified Christ.  It is easy to imagine what hardships he suffered on the way.  I have often heard an account of them from my mother Margaret Mollony, who was a near relative of the martyr, but for shortness’ sake I omit them here. On reaching Dublin he was cast into prison in the Castle, and the different instruments, the boots, the iron gloves, the rack, with which the English executioners used to torture the confessors of Christ, were set before his eyes.  He was asked by the supreme judge  whether he was ready to subscribe to the Queen’s laws and decrees made about religion ? O’Mollony, full of the spirit of God, answered boldly, that he was willing to obey these laws so far as they were in accord with the laws of God and the decisions of Christ’s Vicar on earth.  The judge, more unjust than Pilate, replied that the Queen in her own kingdom was the sole vicar of Christ and Head of the Church.  ‘You must accept her supremacy or suffer death.’  Mollony answered,  ‘Either Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, xiv., and to Timothy, ii., and Jesus Christ himself in his Gospels have erred frequently, or the Queen is not Christ’s Vicar.’  ‘Then you do not admit,’ said the judge, ‘that the Queen has, next after Christ, supreme authority in things spiritual?’ O’Mollony replied  ‘I cannot admit in any way the supremacy of a woman, for women are forbidden to speak in the Church. Moreover, in defence of the opposite doctrine I am ready to endure the greatest torments and to lay down my life.’ Very well,’ said the judge; we shall see whether your deeds correspond with your words.’ About nine o’clock the next day the executioners put the iron gloves on his hands and the boots on his feet, and squeezed them so that the blood burst out.  And as this torture failed, for Donough very often prayed to God, while it lasted, that with the aid of divine grace he might be found worthy to suffer such tortures for Christ’s sake, he was placed on the rack for two hours, and drawn so that he was one span longer.  All this time he was either praying or exhorting those who stood by to hold fast to that faith which is the sole way of salvation, and for which he did not hesitate to shed his blood and sacrifice his life.  The executioners, moved even to tears by the patience and pious exhortations of the noble soldier, took him back to prison half-dead, by order of the wicked judge, where he died very piously a few hours after, April 24th, 1601. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Ward’s Catalogue.) - April 13th, 1588 HE was Guardian of the convent of Donegal,[1] and a celebrated preacher. When the English soldiers came there2 he sent away the rest of the brethren to a place of security, intending to follow them later; but he was prevented by the soldiers.  He strove to gain them over by kindness, but he could not escape.  As he was going out of the gate of the monastery, the first soldier who met him ran him through with a sword, and pierced his head to the brain with three mortal wounds.  When he was slain in this way, and the soldiers had gone away with the plunder, the brethren returned and found F.Tadhg lying dead on the ground, his eyes piously raised to heaven, and his hands crossed on his breast, April 13th, 1588. See also Rothe, Wadding, Bruodin and Hueber. 1 Founded by Hugh Roe O’Donnell, chief of his tribe, for Franciscans, in 1474. See Meehan’s Franciscan Monasteries, p.4. 2 The English who had taken possession of this monastery were driven from it by the young chief Hugh Roe O’Donnell, after his escape from Dublin Castle. See his Life by O’Clery, p.356 Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Molanus’ Idea, p. 73) HE was a Doctor of Theology, and Vicar Apostolic of the diocese of Ross.[1] This active and courageous labourer in promoting the cause of Catholicity, both by his prayers and his exhortations to others, received a wound from a body of armed heretics, who fell on him and left him for dead.  His friends found him still breathing and almost expiring, and bore him off late in the evening to a neighbouring village. Both himself and the place where he was lying are said to have been lighted up throughout the whole of that night. They buried him with much honour in the neighbouring monastery of Timoleague,[2] belonging to the Order of St. Francis. See also Rothe, O’Sullevan, and Porter.[3] 1 O’Sullevan says he was Bishop elect of Ross. His. Cath., p.244. His name, however, is not given in Bradys Ep. Succ 2 Ten miles south of Bandon, on the western side of Courtmacsherry Bay. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p. 52. It was founded by the Barry family. 3 None of these writers gives the date of his death. Rothe places him between Patrick Locheran (1612) and Donagh Daly (1614). Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Hartry’s Synopsis, p. 259 IN the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Assaroe[1] in the Co. Donegal, the Abbot, Eugene O’Gallagher and Bernard O’Trevir, his Prior, and the other monks to the number of thirty, lived according to their rule, undisturbed from the first erection of the abbey  till some years after the suppression of nearly all the other monasteries, [2] while the power of O’Neill and O’Donnell lasted.  But when they fled across the sea the monks too were forced to fly, and when they died at Rome in 1609,[3] the English took occasion to seize on their vast domains and possessions, threw down the monastery, and drove out the monks.  The venerable Eugene O’Gallagher who happened to be away from his monastery, was slain by the aforesaid enemies through hatred of the faith.  So too, Bernard O’Trevir, one of his monks, when flying from his persecutors, was slain near the monastery in the year 1606, in the same year and month as the Abbot, but not on the same day, and entered heaven wearing a martyr’s crown. The author says he heard the account of the martyrdom of these two religious from a venerable priest, Richard Kelly, then in his seventy-sixth year. See also Rothe, O’Sullevan Henriquez, and Bruodin. 1 The abbey is close to the town of Ballyshannon. It was founded in 1178 by OCannanan, chief of Tyrconnell. 2 See Introduction p.7 3 See Meehans Flight of the Earls Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

(From Ward’s Catalogue.) THESE were religious of the convent of Multyfarnham,1 Co. Meath.  In the year 1590 they were seized by English heretics, who were led on by Dudley Loftus2 and Richard Greame.  The first was sent to Dublin and put in prison there.  The two others, old and decrepit, were cast into the prison of Ballyboy.3 All three died in prison the following year. See also Wadding. 1 Founded by William Delamer in 1305. See Meehan’s Franc. Mon., p.38 2 He was a son of Archbishop Loftus. 3 Near Frankfort, King’s County. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.

From Broudin's Propugnaculum, p.440)  THESE religious were natives of Kerry, and born of respectable Catholic parents.  They were priests, and for more than thirty years had preached the word of God throughout different parts of Ireland, not without great profit to souls. When the rest of the brethren fled from the heretics who were coming to seize them, these could not accompany them, owing to old age and loss of sight; the youngest of them was over seventy years of age. They took refuge in church of their monastery in the town of Lislachtin, near the village of Ballylongford.[2] They were seized and dragged before the high altar, and there beaten with sticks, and run through with the sword.  The date of their death is 6th April, 1580.  Rothe gives it as 1582. See also Holing, Rothe, Fitzsimon, Copinger, O’Sullevan, Molanus, Ward, Wadding, and Hueber. 1 Perhaps O’Shea Copinger calls him 0’Lee 2 Founded in 12470 by OConor Kerry. See Annals F.M., iv. 1071. Lislachtin is near the village of Ballylongford. Hueber says they were put to death at Ardfert. Please pray for final perseverance for all of us! May the martyrs of old inspire us all.