MORAN, Patrick Francis, Rev. Memoirs of the most Rev. Oliver Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland, who suffered death for the Catholic faith in the year 1681. Compiled from original documents by the Rev. Patrick Francis Moran.

Dublin: Duffy, 1861. First edition. pp. lxviii, 404. Contemporary full calf, covers framed by triple gilt fillets, badge of Maynooth College in gilt in centre. Spine divided into six panels by five gilt raised bands, title in gilt on black morocco label in the second, remainder elaborately decorated in gilt; board edges gilt; comb marbled endpapers. Ex libris Dalgan Park with neat stamps. Presentation inscription to the library from Fr. Denis Gildea, Achonry. All edges marbled. A very good copy.
A major nineteenth-century Catholic historical work by Patrick Francis Moran, later Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, and one of the foremost Irish ecclesiastical historians of his generation. Moran’s Memoirs of the Most Rev. Oliver Plunket was the first substantial scholarly biography of Oliver Plunket, compiled from original documentary sources and written with the explicit purpose of vindicating Plunket’s character and martyrdom during the anti-Catholic hysteria of the Popish Plot. The work played a significant role in the revival of Plunket’s reputation and in the eventual process leading to his beatification and canonisation. The present copy is particularly distinguished by its handsome contemporary Maynooth College binding, bearing the gilt college badge on the upper cover, and by its presentation inscription from Fr Denis Gildea (Achonry) to the library. Fr. Denis Gildea served in several parishes of Achonry diocese including Ballaghaderreen, Swinford, Tubbercurry.