O’HURLEY, D. & O’DEVANY, C. Sacra Rituum Congregatione E.MO AC R.MO DOMINO Card Vincentio Vannuelli Relatore Dublinen. Beatificationos seu Declarationis Martyrii Servorum Dei Dermitii O’Hurley, Archiepiscopi Casseliensis Cornelii O’Devany, O. S. F. Episcopi Dunensis et Connorensis et Sociorum Pro Fide, Uti Fertur, in Hibernis Interfectorum Positio super Introductione Causae Summarium.

FOR BEATIFICATION REFORMATION SUPPRESSION SURVIVAL

Romae: Ex Typographia Pontificia in Instituto, 1914. Small folio. pp. [2], 1490, 23. Quarter blue morocco on blue cloth boards. A very good copy.
The story of the Reformation period in both Cashel and Emly is a mixture of trial and triumph. Political considerations largely dictated the pace and extent to which the new Protestant State religion and Church would be imposed. In the end, the great majority of the people remained loyal to the old faith, though at a considerable price. From the late sixteenth century until the early eighteenth century, intermittent persecution, increasing powerlessness and deprivation were the lot of Irish Catholics.
The prominence of Cashel and Emly laity, bishops, priests and religious among the Irish martyrs of the period is testimony to remarkable fidelity in the face of persecution and oppression. The most famous of these martyr’s is Blessed Dermot O’Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, who was subjected to cruel torture before being martyred in Dublin on 20 June 1584. The following were among his final words to the crowds gathered at Hoggin Green “I am a priest anointed and also a bishop, although unworthy of so sacred dignities, and no cause could they find against me that might in the least degree deserve the pains of death, but merely my function of priesthood wherein they have proceeded against me in all points cruelly contrary to their own laws.”
Concobhar Ó Duibheannaigh [c.1532-1612] Conor O’Devany or Cornelius O’Devany, a native of Inishowen, was an Irish Franciscan priest from Donegal Abbey and Roman Catholic bishop during the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland that began during the reign of Henry VIII and ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Similarly to St. Polycarp of Smyrna, Bishop Ó Duibheannaigh was in his eighties when he was hanged, drawn and quartered outside the walls of Dublin. In September 1992, he was formally beatified by Pope John Paul II as one of the 24 officially recognized Irish Catholic Martyrs. His feast day is on June 20.

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