The Downpatrick Declaration:‘bringing to the world a message of charity and peace’

Patrick Comerford

Today is being celebrated as the 1600th anniversary of the birth of Saint Columba or Saint Colmcille, one of the three patron saints of Ireland.

On 9 June 1186, 15 bishops, many abbots and church dignitaries and a large number of clergy and laity were present at the reburial of what were now revered as the relics of Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid and Saint Columba (Columcille) in Downpatrick.

Saint Columba is said to have been born 1,600 years ago, on 7 December 521, at Gartan in present-day Co Donegal. As part of today’s commemorations, the ‘Downpatrick Declaration’ was launched this evening (7 December 2021), in Downpatrick, Co Down. As President of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Irish CND), I am one of the 33 signatories of today’s declaration.

Downpatrick Cathedral

The history of Ireland is a reminder of the complexity of community and identity, and of the devastation of violence. Our Peace Process marks a break with centuries of conflict on the island. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement establishes vital principles for recognising one another and for peacefully acknowledging and resolving differences.

Leaders in Britain and in both parts of this island have endorsed exclusively peaceful means of resolving differences on political issues and rejected ‘any use or threat of force’. (Declaration of Support, § 4) These principles are a guide for building sustainable communities, and for our conduct in the wider world.

We should at least not aggravate, and at best help modestly towards, resolving the challenges and conflicts of our troubled Planet Earth. No one person or group is responsible for all these problems, but we are all accountable for how we respond to them.

Tragically, both UK and Irish governments have betrayed the Agreement in their so-called ‘defence’ policies. Their involvement in NATO (UK) and NATO’s so-called ‘Partnership for Peace’ (Republic) has been a moral and practical disaster.

NATO’s ‘War on Terror’ has brought catastrophic onslaughts and human-rights abuses, perpetuating a bitter cycle of aggression and retaliation. It invokes threats but fails to address their nature and sources or to create a context where the tragic cycle could be broken.

This betrays the Republic’s constitutional commitment to ‘the pacific settlement of international disputes ... [and] the generally recognised principles of international law’ (Article 29) It is equally at odds with the pronouncement of Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam in 1999 that ‘all violence, no matter for what purpose, is unacceptable.’

Both governments display the mindset of what US President Eisenhower 60 years ago called 'the military-industrial complex.’ They suggest that producing weapons of war can be a sound basis for prosperity on this island and for supporting peace and development in the wider world. We challenge them, as joint guarantors of the Peace Process, to show how this could be so.

Weapons not only kill and maim; they also wreck homes and habitats and damage our ecology. They distort and distract from the real challenges of security. They deflect resources of mind and matter from worthwhile production. They undermine the good work of governments, NGOs and others for disarmament, peace and development, instead producing a tragic tide of suffering and displacement.

Our world is sliding towards a horrific era of enmity and revenge, as dangerous and destructive as the Cold War. Our governments must bring their policies, at home and abroad, into line with the Declaration of Support. We need to produce ploughshares in a spirit of recognition and rebuilding, rather than swords with the mindset of militarism and mistrust.

Our Declaration invokes Downpatrick, a site recognised by all as emblematic of the island’s ancient history. The Shrine of the Three Patrons, embodying the tradition that Saints Patrick, Brigid and Colmcille are interred there, celebrates the shared roots of the island's different Christian faith traditions, stemming from the Abrahamic roots which they share in turn with Judaism and Islam. Downpatrick itself has known conflict throughout the millennia, up to and including the recent Troubles, but remains a beacon of the values of its patrons: Patrick, an enslaved immigrant, returned with a radical message of peace and love and rejected killing; Brigid lived a life of peace and harmony with nature, selling a bejewelled sword to feed the hungry; and Colmcille left the island in repentance for his own past involvement with violence, bringing to the world a message of charity and peace.

Mairéad Maguire,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Denis J. Halliday,
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General 1994-98

Roy Arbuckle,
Musician

Colin Archer,
Secretary-General, International Peace Bureau (retired)
and Vice-President, Movement for the Abolition of War

lain Atack,
Assistant Professor (Retired) Trinity College Dublin

Sue Claydon,
Chair, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship

Roger Cole,
Chair of Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA)

Revd Canon Prof Patrick Comerford,
President Irish CND

Margaretta D’Arcy,
Theatre Activist

Lelia Doolin,
Television Producer

Rita Duffy,
Artist

Dave Duggan,
Writer

Rob Fairmichael,
Coordinator, INNATE

Valerie Flessati,
Vice President of Pax Christi, England and Wales

Pat Gaffney,
Vice President of Pax Christi, England and Wales

Gerry Grehan,
Chair, Peace People

Edward Horgan,
Former UN Peacekeeper
and founder of Shannonwatch

Tom Hyland,
Founder and Director East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign

Bruce Kent,
President Emeritus of the Movement for the Abolition of War

Frank Keoghan,
Secretary, People's Movement;
former General President, Connect Trade Union

John Maguire,
Professor Emeritus, University College Cork

Felicity McCartney,
Quaker and former Clerk of Ireland Yearly Meeting

Ruairi McKiernan,
Author and former member of the President’s Council of State

Robbie McVeigh,
Author and Activist

Richard Moore,
Founder and Director of Children in Crossfire

Dervla Murphy,
Travel Writer and Author

Joe Murray,
Director, Afri

Joe Noonan,
Solicitor

Clare O’Grady Walshe,
Author

Martina Purdy,
Former BBC NI political correspondent

Michael Quane RHA,
Sculptor

Tommy Sands,
Singer/songwriter

Kate Thompson,
Author

Praying in Advent 2021: 10, Saint Columba

Saint Columba baptisting a child … a fresco in the Baptistery in All Saints’ Church, Blackrock, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

At first this looked like being a busy and stormy day. A planned community project meeting in Rathkeale this morning was postponed last night because of Storm Barra. However, the launch of the ‘Downpatrick Declaration’ is expected to go ahead later this evening.

Before th storm lands in Co Limerick and before the day begins, I am taking some time early this morning (7 December 2021) for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in the Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during Advent;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Columba’s Church, Ennis, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Although today is not Columba’s Day, I have chosen Saint Columba this morning because of the launch of the ‘Downpatrick Declaration’ later this evening, as part of the celebrations of the 1,600th anniversary of the birth of Saint Colimba, who is said to be buried at Downpatrick.

Saint Columba, also known Colum or Columcille, is one of the three patrons of Ireland, alongside Saint Patrick and Saint Brigid of Kildare. He is also the patron saint of Derry and is regarded as one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’. He was born 1,600 years ago, on 7 December 521, at Gartan in present-day Co Donegal.

He is remembered as the missionary monk who introduced Christianity to Scotland, and who founded the abbey on the island of Iona.

Saint Columba studied under Saint Finnian of Movilla and Saint Finnian of Clonard, was ordained priest ca 551, and founded churches and monasteries in Derry, Durrow and Swords.

In 560, Columba became involved in a quarrel with Saint Finnian of Moville over a psalter. Columba copied the manuscript at the scriptorium under Finnian, intending to keep the copy. Finnian disputed Columba’s right to keep it, and the conflict that ensued eventually resulted in the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne in present-day Co Sligo in 561, when many men were killed.

A synod was called, and Columba was threatened with excommunication for these deaths. But Saint Brendan of Birr (29 November) spoke on his behalf. Eventually, Saint Columba set sail from the Inishowen Peninsula in Co Donegal for Scotland, where he and his 12 disciples founded a church and monastery on the island of Iona ca 563.

Iona became the springboard for the conversion of Scotland, and is regarded as the mother house of abbots and bishops in the early history of Christianity in Scotland.

Saint Columba returned with Saint Aidan to Ireland in 575, when he took a leading role in the Synod of Druim Cetta and founded the monastery of Drumcliff in Cairbre, now Co Sligo, near the battlefield.

Saint Columba spent most of his years in Iona. He died there in 597 and was buried in his abbey. he created. The Vikings first attacked Iona in 794, and Saint Columba’s relics were finally removed in 849 and divided between Scotland and Ireland. The parts of the relics that went to Ireland are said to be buried in Downpatrick, Co Down, with Saint Patrick and Saint Brigid.

Three Latin hymns have been attributed to Saint Columba, and he is associated with the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow. Saint Columba’s feast day is 9 June.

On 9 June 1186, 15 bishops, many abbots and church dignitaries and a large number of clergy and laity were present at the reburial of what were now revered as the relics of Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid and Saint Columba (Columcille) in Downpatrick.

This morning, I am also thinking of and giving thanks for many places I have stayed and prayed, and sometimes preached, including Saint Columba’s House, a retreat house on Maybury Hill in Woking, Surrey; Saint Columba’s Church, Ennis, Co Clare; Saint Columba’s Church, Swords, Co Dublin; Saint Columba’s Church, Kells, Co Meath; and the Church of Saint Columba and Saint Joseph in Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick.

Saint Columba’s Church, Swords, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 18: 12-14 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 12 ‘What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (7 December 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for tea plantation workers across Asia and Africa, who often suffer from poor working conditions and meagre wages.

Yesterday: Saint Nicholas of Myra

Tomorrow: The Virgin Mary

The Round Tower at the South Gate of Saint Columba’s Church, Kells, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Asking questions about Saint Patrick’s reliquary in the Hunt Museum, Limerick

The reliquary made for relics of Saint Patrick, now in the Hunt Museum, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

During my recent visit to the Hunt Museum in Limerick, I wondered about a silver reliquary bust that was made for relics of Saint Patrick.

This reliquary, which is in the shape of a tonsured head, appears to have been made in France, perhaps in the late 15th century. It has a hinged top and there is an oval grille in the top of the head to allow the relic to be seen. The head is placed on an octagonal base with quatrefoil decoration, that was made in Ireland and is inset with nine crystals. The reliquary is supported by seven crouching lions.

A Latin inscription around the bust reads: DNS [Dominus] Jacobus Buticularius Comes de Ormond Justiciarius Hibernie hoc opus fieri fecit ad honorem Sancti Patricii, ‘Lord James Butler, Earl of Ormond, Justiciar of Ireland, had this work made in honour of Saint Patrick.’

The transcription and translation is uncertain. The reliquary is believed to have contained a relic from the skull of Saint Patrick, but leads to many questions, including:

If Saint Patrick is buried in Downpatrick, which relic from saint were supposed to be displayed in this reliquary?

And which James Butler, Earl of Ormond, commissioned this reliquary?

The Justiciar or Chief Justiciar was the equivalent of a modern Prime Minister. From the end of the 12th century up to the middle of the 14th century, the chief governor was usually styled ‘justiciar.’ In the later mediaeval period, the titles ‘lieutenant,’ ‘deputy lieutenant’ or ‘lord deputy,’ were the most common designation for the chief governor of Ireland, although the title of justiciar continued to be used until the late mediaeval period.

Four James Butlers may be considered as the potential patrons who commissioned this work:

● James Butler (1331-1382), 2nd Earl of Ormond, who was Lord Justice of Ireland in 1359, 1364, and 1376.

● James Butler (1359-1405), 3rd Earl of Ormond, who held office in 1391.

● James Butler (1392–1452), 4th Earl of Ormond, who held office in 1419-1421 and again in 1425-1427.

● James Butler (1420-1461), 5th Earl of Ormond, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1451.

One expert consulted by the Hunt Museum about the reliquary suggested that knowing when the title of Duke of Ormond was created would help date the bust. However, the title of Duke of Ormonde was not created until 1682 for James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, 12th Earl of Ormond, 5th Earl of Ossory and 1st Marquess of Ormond, who held office after the restoration in 1662-1668, and again in 1677-1682 and 1684-1685.

As the reliquary is a late mediaeval work made before the Reformation and probably in the 15th century, the Dukes of Ormonde can be eliminated from any discussions, and the only two candidates to be considered as the commissioning patron are the fourth and fifth earls of Ormond.

The reliquary has been compared to Tuscan works of the late 15th century and also with similar head reliquaries, including a Byzantine-style head of Pope Alexander II (1061-1073), made in 1145 in the Abbey of Stavelot, now in Walloon, Belgium, and held in the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels, and another of Frederick Barbarossa (1122-1190), made in Aachen ca 1171-1175 and later used as a reliquary in Cappenberg Abbey in Germany.

There was a similar treasure in Grandmont Abbey, near Limoges, in France. The Grandmont bust represents Saint Etienne Muret, hermit and founder of the Grandmont order. It may have been made long before it was donated to Grandmont Abbey in the late 15th century by the French statesman Cardinal Guillaume Briçonnet (1445-1514).

These comparisons to suggest that the reliquary or shrine associated with Saint Patrick was made after the mid-12th century and long before the end of the 15th century, which leaves unanswered the questions about James Butler, Earl of Ormond, was the original patron or commissioner.

It also leaves unanswered the questions about which remains or relics associated with Saint Patrick were ever held in this reliquary.

Tradition says Saint Patrick was buried in Saul, but that he was later reburied in Downpatrick alongside Saint Brigid of Kildare and Saint Columba (Colmcille) of Iona.

Over the centuries, the location of the actual burial sites was forgotten or lost. But in 1186, Malachy, Bishop of Down, claimed that in answer to prayer their place of burial had been revealed to him in a dream one night. He claimed he saw a heavenly light settle like a sunbeam on a spot at the Benedictine Cathedral in Downpatrick, where he ordered his priests to dig. They disinterred three bodies, and these were claimed as the remains of Ireland’s three patron saints.

Bishop Malachy and John de Courcy applied to Rome for permission to move the bodies to the cathedral. Cardinal Vivian was sent from Rome to Down as a special legate to superintend the removal of the relics.

On 9 June,1186, 15 bishops, many abbots and church dignitaries and a large number of clergy and laity were present at the reburial of what were now revered as the relics of Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid and Saint Columba (Columcille) in Downpatrick. Before the burial, some of the relics were enshrined and placed on the High Altar. Most of his remains were reburied at Downpatrick, but some of the relics were brought back to Rome by Cardinal Vivian. One of the relics sent to Rome was supposedly a bone from Saint Patrick’s arm, and a reliquary was later made to enshrine this bone.

Other relics of Saint Patrick for which reliquaries were made included his lower jawbone, various teeth, his crozier, his bell and his book. The authenticity of many of these relics is questionable, but collectively they have had a cultural impact on religious piety and practice in Ireland over the centuries.

Legend says the ornate Shrine of Saint Patrick’s Tooth or Fiacal Pádraig once contained an actual tooth Saint Patrick lost while visiting a church of Killaspugbrone, near Strandhill, Co Sligo. A wooden box coated in gold, silver and amber was made in the 14th century to hold the hallowed tooth.

According to the Annals of Cong Abbey, this tooth was held in a handsomely decorated shrine of wood in the shape of a horseshoe, with a metal plate at the top of a highly decorated rim of brass, silver, and gilt material. On the front was a metal work cross with two figures on each side above shamrock arches. Beneath was a row of raised gilt figures representing Saint Brigid, Saint Patrick, Saint Columcille and Saint Brendan. On the back was a raised cross and four figures, including a woman holding a harp. It was highly decorated with crystals, stones and amber studs.

In the early 19th century, a man named Reilly made a living by traveling with the shrine across Ireland offering cures. One day, Reilly met a priest who asked him to verify its authenticity as he examined it. Reilly said it once belonged, to the canons of Cong. Father Prendergast then claimed the last of the Augustinian canons of Cong, took the shrine and rode off with it.

The tooth is long lost, but the reliquary, which was held for years in the Royal Irish Academy, is now in the National Museum of Ireland in Kildare Street, Dublin.

Other teeth appeared in different parts of Ireland, said to have been preserved by his disciples. One gave its name to Kilfeacle or Cill Fiacail (the Church of the Tooth), near Tipperary town.

Five teeth were said once to be held in the Shrine of Saint Patrick’s Jawbone. For many years, this silver shrine was kept by an ordinary family near Belfast. It oncle included five teeth, but now holds only one. Three teeth were given to members of the family emigrating to America, and a fourth was deposited under the altar of the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Colman and Saint Patrick in Derriaghy, Co Antrim, when it was rebuilt some years ago.

The silver reliquary with Saint Patrick’s Jaw, fashioned in 1645, was later transferred to Saint Patrick’s Church, Belfast, and is now on loan to the Down County Museum in Downpatrick.

The Shrine of Saint Patrick’s Hand is on display in the Ulster Museum in Belfast, and once enshrined a severed arm and hand popularly believed to have been Saint Patrick’s. However – like his many teeth – the bone itself has long disappeared.

When Edward Bruce invaded Ireland, he plundered the Cathedral at Downpatrick and the shrine of Saint Patrick’s arm and hand was carried off in 1316. Nothing further is heard of the shrine for some centuries, when it is found in the possession of the Magennis family of Iveagh, some of whom were Abbots and Bishops of Down.

About 1710, a daughter of the Magennis family married George Russell of Rathmullan, Co Down, and brought the relic with her. Their daughter, Rose Russell, married Rowland Savage of the Ards and so the shrine came into the possession of the Savage family. The head of the family changed his name to Nugent, and as a member of the Church of Ireland was not interested in keeping the shrine in his family. He gave it over to the parish priest of Portaferry, and when Father Teggart died in 1765, the shrine passed of the McHenry family of Caristown in the Upper Ards. Eventually, the McHenry family handed over the reliquary to Dr Cornelius Denvir (1791-1866), Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor (1835-1865).

When Dr Denvir opened the shrine in 1856, he found it contained no relic, but merely a piece of yew wood almost a foot long, with an aperture just large enough to hold the wrist bone of a human arm. This was smeared over at both ends with wax seals that had been impressed on the inner wooden receptacle, perhaps to keep the bone in position. The relic in the shrine had apparently been worn away through constant use.

The shrine is a beautiful silver case in the shape of a hand and an arm up to the elbow, and the fingers are bent, as if they were giving a blessing.

The bronze Bellshrine of Saint Patrick was made in the 12th century for King Domhall Ua Lochlainn to hold the bell that once belonged to the saint. This shrine is highly decorated with silver and gold filigree, figures and studs of crystal and glass. The bell inside is plain iron and shaped like a cowbell. It too is in the National Museum in Dublin.

Images of Saint Patrick holding the crozier are common in Irish artwork, including stained-glass windows and statues. Tradition says Saint Patrick’s Crozier was given to the saint by a hermit on an island in the Mediterranean. The legends say the crozier was given the hermit by Jesus himself, with an injunction to give it to Saint Patrick when he arrived.

But the crozier was denounced as an ‘object of superstition,’ and was burned publicly at the Reformation in the 16th century.

Of course, none of this fully answers many questions:

● When was the reliquary in the Hunt Museum made?

● Which Earl of Ormond was it made for?

● Which relic or relics did it hold?

● Was it kept in Kilkenny Castle?

● Where was it kept and who owned it before it arrived in the Hunt Museum?

I might even be permitted to ask, with tongue in cheek:

● How many teeth did Saint Patrick have?

In the Hunt Museum, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

‘Anglicans have every reason to be profoundly grateful for the gift’

Patrick Comerford

The Rev Dr Thomas Carroll, who has recently retired at the age of 68 to his native Longford, is a priest of the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, but has spent most of his working life as lecturer in liturgy and church history in the US, England, Rome, and Australia. He holds doctorates from both the Angelicum University in Rome and the Pontifical Liturgical Institute.

Despite his retirement, Father Carroll has been in much demand as a lecturer in theological colleges in Dublin. It is to be hoped that in coming years his native Ireland will benefit from his wisdom and learning.

As a young student in Rome in the 1950s and 1960s, Tom Carroll was present at the Second Vatican Council. Since then, he has earned acclaim as a theologian, writing and lecturing extensively on preaching, liturgy and patristics, the study of the early fathers of the Church. His Preaching the Word was published in 1984, and Liturgical practice in the Fathers followed in 1988.

Academic life

But what makes him unusual as a Roman Catholic theologian, perhaps, is that more than 40 years of his academic life have been devoted to researching the life and writings of a 17th-century Church of Ireland bishop, and his work has been highly acclaimed by Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike.

In 1990, he was the editor of Jeremy Taylor, Selected Works, published by the Paulist Press in New York as part of its “Classics of Western Spirituality” series aimed at providing “a library of the great spiritual masters”.

In his review of that book, the former Archbishop of Dublin, the late Henry McAdoo proclaimed: “This volume … is the book I have been waiting for.” Dr McAdoo had been co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), a pioneering body in the field of securing ecumenical agreements. Moreover, he was the acknowledged expert on Taylor, and his insights from Taylor’s eucharistic theology are said to have been a major contribution to the ground-breaking agreements between Anglicans and Roman Catholics in the 1970s and 1980s.

Although Jeremy Taylor was born and educated in England, and spent his early years as a country rector and a junior chaplain to Charles I, he has always been seen as a key figure in the 17th-century Church of Ireland, alongside John Bramhall and James Ussher.

It is surprising that he managed to survive the turbulent years of the English Civil War. He owed his early promotions to the patronage of Charles I’s chaplain, the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, who was executed; his second wife, Joanna Bridges, is thought to have been an illegitimate daughter of Charles I, and in print condemned Cromwell as “the Son of Zippor … sent to curse the people of the Lord.”

Moved to Ireland

To save Taylor from a second spell in jail, Lord and Lady Conway invited him to become their chaplain at Portmore, near Lisburn, and he moved to Ireland at the age of 44 in June 1658. Within two years, the monarchy was restored, and Taylor, who was in London for the triumphal entry of Charles II on May 29th, 1660, might have expected to become a bishop in the Church of England. Instead, he was offered the diocese of Down and Connor in the Church of Ireland.

Taylor’s disappointment was undisguised. He wrote to the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Ormonde, complaining: “I am thrown into a place of torment … the ministers are implacable.” He referred to the Presbyterian ministers, who were in a majority in his new diocese, as “Scotch spiders” who “have threatened to murder”. His response would be swift: within weeks he declared vacant the parishes of 36 Presbyterian ministers.

Despite his complaints, Taylor was among the 10 new bishops and two archbishops consecrated for the Church of Ireland in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on January 27th, 1661. In front of all the powers of church and state, Taylor was given the singular honour of being invited to preach at his own consecration. In February, he took possession of his diocese, but found it had neither cathedral nor bishop’s residence, and went to live at Hillsborough Castle.

Taylor never realised his ambitions to return to a more comfortable diocese in England. Indeed, his pleas to Ormonde to be moved to any other diocese, including Meath, Dublin and Armagh, were ignored too.

Perhaps by way of compensation, the adjacent Diocese of Dromore, with its burned-down cathedral and handful of priests, was added to his charge, and he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin. In time his reforms and revisions had set Trinity on his feet, he restored Dromore Cathedral at his own expense, and the parish church at Lisburn was serving as the cathedral for the Diocese of Connor.

Personal sadness

Taylor’s personal life was marked by great sadness. His seventh and only surviving son, Charles, died on August 2nd, 1667. The following day, the bishop caught a fever, and he died at the age of 54 on August 13th, 1667. His last words were: “Bury me at Dromore.”

For years, Dr McAdoo complained that Taylor’s voluminous works were inaccessible to the general reader. Father Tom Carroll’s scholarly and attractive Selected Works went a long way towards rectifying that.

More recently, he has been invited to contribute the entry on Jeremy Taylor for the new edition of the Dictionary of National Biography being published by the Oxford University Press.

Earlier this summer, Four Courts Press published a new selection of 11 sermons by Taylor, edited by Father Carroll as Wisdom and Wasteland: Jeremy Taylor in his prose and preaching today. The news that Four Courts Press had agreed to publish the book reached Dr McAdoo the day before he died. In his foreword, the late archbishop praises Tom Carroll for his “large benefaction”, and says: “Anglicans have every reason to be profoundly grateful for the gift”.

This feature was first published as ‘An Irishman’s Diary’ in The Irish Times on 16 August 2001.