OCR Text |
Show The Irish Martyrs. In the course of an interview with a representative of the Dublin Evening Telegraph, in reference to the canonization canon-ization of Irish martyrs, his grace the archbishop of Dublin said the proceedings proceed-ings now in progress in the diocesan court are, in the present stage, strictly strict-ly private, and, though there is no secret se-cret as to the nature of the procedure, the evidence that is being given or has been given, must be' kept a matter of absolute secrecy until the diocesan inquiry in-quiry is definitely closed. Every witness wit-ness examined is bound himself to state anything that may have come within his knowledge regarding1 a case of martyrdom, mar-tyrdom, whether it goes to establish the case or to weaken or disprove it.- Asked whether the secrecy of the ' proceedings covered the names of the martj'rs or the number of cases that are being inquired into, Jiis grace an-s an-s swered that as to this there is no se- cret whatever, and he referred to a ' published list in . the "Irish Ecclecias-1 Ecclecias-1 tlcal Record" for January, 1903, in ' which 250 to 300 cases were mentioned, with which at that time it was proposed pro-posed to deal. In reference to. the question, "Those all come from the time of the persecution persecu-tion under Henry VIII and Elizabeth?" his grace remarked that the Cromwel-lian Cromwel-lian persecution claimed many victims. There were others of later date. The list included names from all parts of Irelandnorth, south, east and west-Armagh, west-Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, Tuam,' Cork, Drogheda, Limerick, Derry and so on persons of every rank in life clergy and laity; bishops and priests; the clergy, secular and regular; men and women; some of noble birth and high station; others of humbler social grades. Names were struck, out of the list .published in January, 1903, and names were also added. "The list now before the diocesan court includes," added his grace, "names from all parts of Ireland." In some cases the victims of persecution suffered death in Dublin, as, for instance, Dermot O'Hurley, the archbishop of Cashel, and the Franciscan, Francis-can, Cornelius O'Devany, bi3hop of Down and Connor. As illustrating the general character of the list, his grace mentioned that amongst the names placed on what is known as the "title" of the case, are the following: Dermot O'Hurley, archbishop of . Cashel; Cornelius Cor-nelius O'Devany, bishop of Down and Connor; Maurice Kenraghty, a secular priest of the diocese of Limerick; Arthur Ar-thur MacGeoghegan, a priest of the Dominican order, and Sir John Burke, or De Burgo of Britta?. In further conversation his grace said the case of Oliver Plunkett was not before them at all, and also explained ex-plained that Oliver Plunkett was put to death at Tyburn In London, and hence It was competent for the archbishop arch-bishop of Vestminster to hold the "ordinary" "or-dinary" process, socalled because it is conducted by the bishop or "ordinary" Of the diocese, conducted by Mm personally, per-sonally, or by his direction and authority. author-ity. In Oliver Plunkett'3 case the "ordinary" "or-dinary" process was gone through, and completed many years ago, and the archbishop added: "The 'apostolic' process, then, in Oliver Plunkett's case is to be dealt vith, not in London, but in Armagh. It took twelve years then that is, from 1874 to 186 to get that case brought up to the point at which the holding of the 'apostolic' process was possible. As such matters go, that was considered expeditious. So you can see that we are a long way off from the 'aposlolic' process in the hundreds of cases that I have been put in charge of. and that are being, dealt with now." 1 His grace, having referred to the enormous mass of evidence to be obtained, ob-tained, stated that in addition to the sixty sessions held in -Dublin, ;' twelve sessions-. had been held in' Sydney for the purpose of taking, by commission; the evidence of his Eminence Cardinal Mo ran, to whom, for his interest in the case of -the Irish Martyrs, his grace paid .a very high tribute, saying: . "It is nol too. much to say that if it:were not for Cardinal Moran's untiring zeal in the matter, the present proceedings would, in ' all probability, never have been set on foot at all, at least not Jn our time." |