17 Facts About Oliver Plunkett

Oliver Plunkett was the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland and the last victim of the Popish Plot.

Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, thus becoming the first new Irish saint in almost seven hundred years.

Oliver Plunkett was admitted to the Irish College in Rome and proved to be an able pupil.

Oliver Plunkett was ordained a priest in 1654, and deputed by the Irish bishops to act as their representative in Rome.

Oliver Plunkett petitioned to remain in Rome and, in 1657, became a professor of theology.

Oliver Plunkett's ministry was a successful one and he is said to have confirmed 48,000 Catholics over a four-year period.

Oliver Plunkett went into hiding, travelling only in disguise, and refused a government edict to register at a seaport to await passage into exile.

Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin was arrested, and Oliver Plunkett again went into hiding.

The Privy Council of England, in Westminster, was told that Oliver Plunkett had plotted a French invasion.

Oliver Plunkett was tried at Dundalk for conspiring against the state by allegedly plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country, and for levying a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion.

Oliver Plunkett did not object to facing an all-Protestant jury, but the trial soon collapsed as the prosecution witnesses were themselves wanted men and afraid to turn up in court.

The second trial has generally been regarded as a serious miscarriage of justice; Oliver Plunkett was denied defending counsel and time to assemble his defence witnesses, and he was frustrated in his attempts to obtain the criminal records of those who were to give evidence against him.

The jury returned within fifteen minutes with a guilty verdict and Archbishop Oliver Plunkett replied: "Deo Gratias".

Charles told him frankly that he knew Oliver Plunkett to be innocent, but that the time was not right to take so bold a step as to pardon him.

Oliver Plunkett's body was initially buried in two tin boxes, next to five Jesuits who had died previously, in the courtyard of St Giles in the Fields church.

Oliver Plunkett was beatified on 23 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

Oliver Plunkett has since been followed by 17 other Irish martyrs who were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992.