Ireland, the first Western country outside the Roman Empire to receive the Christian message, was able to keep alive the distinctive signs of the Catholic faith, despite the Anglican Reformation and the expansionist and colonial aims of England during the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
At that time, England structured itself as a modern nation-state and directed its expansionism against Ireland, especially by Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), whose armies managed to take control of the entire island for the first time in 1603, with the exception of the Dublin area.
Irish society was still made up of Celtic tribes and local Gaelic-speaking and Catholic kingdoms. The British presented the war to domestic public opinion as a "crusade" against Catholicism and papal rule when it was a real colonial conquest. Amongst the means used by the English, there was in fact the so-called "Plantation" (1608-1610), and that is the transfer of English and Scottish settlers to various areas of Ireland in order to consolidate English domination. The new settlers, mostly Anglican, settled mainly in present-day Ulster, depriving the local population of their land and forcing them to take refuge inland.
In the mid-seventeenth century, the English Penal Laws effectively prohibited the exercise of the Catholic religion and the use of the Gaelic language, preventing the Irish from owning any property. The Irish Gaels and the Old English did not convert, but continued to profess Catholicism and opposed the Crown officials and English settlers who had come to the island.
Many were the witnesses of Christ who, for having remained faithful to their mission as Christians and evangelizers alongside the persecuted people, crowned their commitment with the palm of martyrdom, amongst whom four Friars Minor, killed in three separate moments, deserve special memory. Their martyrdom and that of 23 other Irish lay or religious of various orders were recognised by John Paul II on the 27th September, 1992, with the solemn liturgy of Beatification.
Beato Patrick (Patricius) O’Healy (1545 circa - 1579)
Born at Connaught or Dromahair in County Lutrim in about 1545 and entered the Order of Friars Minor at a young age, he was a religious of exemplary life for his humility and zeal. He studied at the University of Salamanca in Spain; in 1576 he was called to Rome and was elected Bishop of County Mayo, in the province of Connacht, by Pope Gregory XIII. In Paris, he participated in public discussions at the Sorbonne, astonishing his listeners with his mastery of patristics, doctrinal questions and Scotist philosophy.
Fr. Patrick refused to recognise the Queen of England as the Supreme Head of the Church; he was therefore sentenced to death for treason and the crime of lèse-majesté. Whilst he was being led to his execution, he asked his confrere Conn O'Rourke, a companion in martyrdom, to absolve him of his sins, then reciting with him the litanies of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Before being hanged in Kilmallock on the 13th August 1579, he urged Catholics to remain firmly united to the Pope and called on his persecutors to convert.
Blessed Conn (Conradus) O'Rourke (c. 1549 - 1579)
Born around 1549, the son of Brian O'Rourke, Lord of Breifne, he renounced the comforts of his noble family as a young man to be Friar Minor. Together with his confrere Patrick O'Healy he was imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death.
Blessed Conor (Cornelius) O'Devany (c. 1532 - 1612)
Born in about 1532 in Raphoe in County Donegal, he entered the Order of Friars Minor in 1550. He was appointed Bishop of Down and Connor on the 27th April 1582 by Gregory XIII; in 1587, he took part in an Irish synod for the promulgation of the Decrees of the Council of Trent.
He was first arrested in 1588 and locked up in Dublin Castle; freed in 1590, he returned to his episcopal see. He was arrested again in 1611, now eighty years old, whilst administering the Sacrament of Confirmation, and was imprisoned again in Dublin Castle on charges of treason. Found guilty of disobedience to the royal provisions, he was sentenced to death and serenely set out to be hanged, forgiving his persecutors. He died on the 11th February, 1612.
Blessed John (Joannes) Kearney (1619-1653)
Born in 1619 in Gashel, he entered the Order of Friars Minor and studied in Louvain, Belgium. In 1644, he was captured by the English and put in prison in London. Tried and tortured, he escaped from prison thanks to an accomplice. He found refuge in the convent of Carrik-on-Suir, where he was appointed Guardian, but in 1653 he was arrested again. Tried for celebrating Holy Mass, he was sentenced to death. He went to the scaffold with the Franciscan habit, the cross and a rosary in his hand. Having publicly renewed his profession of faith in the Catholic Church, he offered his life for it. He was buried in the Chapter House of the Franciscan friary of Carrik-on-Suir.
Cf. Friars Minor Saints and Blesseds, edited by Br. Silvano Bracci, OFM and Sr. Antonietta Pozzebon, FMSC. Editrice Velar, 2009, pp. 293-296.