Maurice MacKenraghty

Muiris Mac Ionrachtaigh, anglicised as Maurice MacKenraghty (died 30 April 1585), was an Irish Roman Catholic priest who was put to death, officially for high treason, but in reality as part of the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Ireland by Queen Elizabeth I and her officials. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II, along with 16 other Irish Catholic Martyrs, on 27 September 1992.

Life Although the exact date of his birth remains unknown, Muiris Mac Ionrachtaigh, was born at Kilmallock , which was "a prosperous walled town in the Desmond lands in County Limerick". His father, Tomás Mac Ionrachtaigh ("Thomas MacKenraghty"), was a goldsmith and silversmith who was originally from the civil barony of Irraghticonnor. The MacKenraghty family were full citizens of the town of Kilmallock and probably also enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Desmond.

Mac Ionrachtaigh embraced the ecclesiastical state and is believed to have studied abroad in Catholic Europe and to have graduated bachelor in theology. Returning to Ireland, he became chaplain and confessor to Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, and shared the fortunes of his patron in the Second Desmond Rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. During the uprising, Mac Ionrachtaigh continued his priestly ministry to the best of his ability and is said to have suffered immensely during the Earl of Ormond's retaliatory campaign of scorched earth and total war that triggered a State-imposed famine which killed an estimated third of Munster's population.

On 17 September 1583, while a fugitive with the Earl, Mac Ionrachtaigh was surprised on Sliabh Luachra by Maurice Roche, 6th Viscount Fermoy's gallowglass. On 19 September, Lord Roche wrote to the Earl of Ormond that the Rebel Earl's chaplain was in his hands.

In a letter dispatched on 23 September 1583 from Ormonde Castle at Carrick-on-Suir to Lord Burghley, the Earl of Ormond announced that he had dispatched a Captain Roberts to bring in the captive priest. Ormond added that he had also sent his servant, Patrick Grant, to whom the priest was chained, "that no man may see him, nor speak with him, till he comes hither to me... I would this chaplain, and I, were for one hour with you in your chamber, that you may know the secrets of his heart, which by fair or foul means, he must open to me."

While no records of any such interrogation survives, Mac Ionrachtaigh was imprisoned at Clonmel Gaol.

According to historian James Coombes, "Here, as in other southern towns, Counter-Reformation Catholicism was already beginning to make a real impact; and, as in these other towns, the citizens of Clonmel were beginning to come up against the problem of combining loyalty to the Pope with loyalty to the Queen. Maurice MacKenraghty continued his ministry during what proved to be a long imprisonment."

According to the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History, "Executions were held in public at the Gallows, (hence place names such as Gallows Hill), until 1868. It was thought that such public displays on busy days like Market Day, would act as a deterrent to would be criminals."

He was hanged, cut down while still alive, and then executed by beheading. His head was displayed spiked in the market-place along with the four quarters of his torso. All were, however, later purchased from the soldiers and buried behind the former high altar of the ruined Franciscan friary. Writing in 1907, however, W.P. Burke alleged, without citing his source, that Mac Ionrachtaigh's body had been re-exhumed in 1647 and reburied alongside the tombs of the FitzGerald dynasty at Askeaton Friary in County Limerick.

During an 1807 visit to Ireland on behalf of the London Hibernian Society, Welsh nonconformist minister Thomas Charles alleged ruefully that the Reformation in Ireland had failed because of the refusal of Protestant clergy to preach or educate in the local vernacular. Of his visit to Clonmel, Charles recalled, "All the county spoke Irish... they spoke Irish in the streets."

Muiris Mac Ionrachtaigh was beatified by Pope John Paul II, along with 16 other Irish Catholic Martyrs, on 27 September 1992.

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