Plunket, St Oliver

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Plunket, St Oliver (1629–81). Catholic archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland (1670–81). Born in Meath, educated in Rome, Plunket was successively professor of theology there (1657–69) and archbishop of Armagh after consecration in Ghent. He was on good terms with successive viceroys. Diligent in his diocese, he also went on mission to the Hebrides (1671). An ultramontane, he established firm ecclesiastical discipline and raised standards, and, though in dispute with Archbishop Talbot of Dublin over precedence, presided at the synod (1670). Threatened with expulsion after the English Test Act he went into hiding (1674), but was arrested in Dublin (1678) and falsely accused of involvement in the Popish plot. Tried in London on a trumped-up charge of conspiring to bring a French army to Ireland, Plunket was convicted of treason and, despite general agreement of his innocence, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. His relics are in Downside abbey (Som.). He was canonized in 1975.

Revd Dr William M. Marshall

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Saint Oliver Plunket

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