CHAPTER VIII. SUFFERINGS OF CATHOLICS IN LIMERICK
1. From the very commencement of the confederate war the citizens of Limerick were remarkable for the ardour with which they entered on the struggle: they were subsequently still more distinguished by the heroism with which they drove Ireton from their walls; but their renown received its brightest lustre from the true Christian spirit which they displayed, and in which when overcome by the pestilence and the number of their foes, they chose rather to endure every suffering than abandon the Catholic faith.
As early as the 8th October 1646, the bishop of that see, writing to the secretary of the Sacred Congregation, declared that no longer did any alternative remain: ”We shall either restore the Catholic Religion in its full splendour, or be all cut off to a man: one spirit pervades us all...but unless timely succour comes from foreign parts, we shall surely be overcome, and the Catholic religion will be rooted out, in defence of which alone this war was begun.“
2. True to their principles, the citizens, even when the Puritan army was marching to the attack, refused to admit Ormond or his troops within the walls. Perhaps one of the most remarkable documents of this period is the protest which they presented to their bishop in the beginning of 1650, and which they again solemnly laid before the Archbishop of Cashel and the other bishopsof Ireland, when assembled in Limerick on 24th October, the same year. in it they sketch the career of Ormond and Inchiquin, whom they justly stigmatized as traitors:-
”What succour, they ask, can we expect from Ormond and Inchiquin, the sworn enemies of the Catholic cause? What good can this nation look forward to from the government of those who persecuted her with fire and sword, and displayed such tyranny, and sacrilege, and profanation, as surpass all former persecutions of the Church?...Should we be necessitated to surrender, will it not be better to enter into negotiations with the Parliament, and secure some conditions, than to open our gates to a domestic enemy, by whom we shall be first despoiled of all our goods and properties, and then, as has happened in so many other cities, be sold to the enemy? Can any city or town be named which admitted Ormond within its walls, and was not betrayed by him? Who will dare to deny that it happened so in Dublin, Drogheda, Dundalk, Carlingford, Trim, Athlone, Navan, Naas, Wicklow, Carlow, Ross, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Carrick, Fethard, Cashel, and so many other towns, all of which endured such miseries and dire calamities through the treacherous design of Ormond, as no volume could contain, no pen describe, no tongue express?“
3. Before the close of 1651, Ireton sat down a second time before the walls of Limerick. Its heroic garrison, though small, yet being led on by the brave Hugh O’Neill, repulsed the enemy at every assault. For a long time the issue appeared doubtful. The author of ”Narratio Brevis Status Regni Hiberniae“, thus writes from Connaught, on the 13th of August 1651:-
”Ireton, at present, by a close siege, hems in Limerick on every side; mounds and batteries and fortresses are everywhere erected around the city; by a repeated bombardment the wall at the western bridge of the city was thrown down, whereupon the enemy attempted an assauly, their regular army attacking it by land, whilst by a number of boats and vessels they sought to penetrate into the city on the river side; yet, the citizens of Limerick not only bravely resisted and repelled the assault, but pursued the enemy without the walls, utterly discomfiting them, the number of Ireton’s slain being 1500. The boats and vessels too became a prey to the victors. More than once the assault was repeated, but always with a similar result; so that up to the present time the loss of Ireton’s army is reckoned at more than three thousand five hundred.“
(Sections 4 to 9 deal with the missionary activities of the great Saint Vincent de Paul and his missionary fathers in this time.)
10. At length the last bulwark of Ireland was compelled to submit to the army of the Parliament. Conditions, indeed, were granted; but, with the Puritans, conditions were only made in order to be violated, and no sooner were they admitted within the walls, ”than they cruelly massacred many of the inhabitants on account of the Catholic faith which they professed.“ (Abelly, „Vie de St. Vincent“, VOL. IV, p. 218). A few instances will, perhaps, best illustrate the fury with which the Puritans raged against the Catholics of this ancient city.
11. Mr. Thomas Stritch, on terminating his spiritual retreat, had been elected mayor, and he ever proved himself an unflinching defender of his country’s cause:-
”On receiving the keys of the city, he laid them before the statue of the most holy Virgin, praying her to receive the city under her protection, whilst, at the same time, as an act of homage, all the public guilds marched in procession to the church; he then made a most Christian address to the whole assembly, encouraging them to an inviolable attachment to God, to the Church, and to the king, offering to lay down his own life in so just a cause. God was pleased to accept his offering, and on the city being taken, he received the martyr’s crown, together with three other persons, who having been his companions in his spiritual retreat, were likewise partakers of his reward. They all four marched along not only with firmness, but even with joy, and before execution they severally addressed the bystanders, moving the very heretics to tears, and declaring before heaven and earth that they laid down their lives for the confession and defence of the Catholic faith. Their heroic example greatly encouraged the other Catholics to preserve their faith, and to suffer all extremities of persecution rather than be wanting in the fidelity which they owe to God“. (Abelly, ibid. p. 218)
Father Anthony Broudin, in his ”Descriptio Regni Hiberniae“, adds other instances:-
”The most illustrious Sir Patrick Purcell, Vice General of all Munster, a nobe-hearted and most accomplished warrior (for in Germany, under Ferdinand III, he acquired an immortal renown, combatting against Sweden and France), after the taking of Limerick, was hanged, then his head was cut off, and exposed on a stake over the southern gate, called St. John’s Gate, A.D: 1651. The illustrious and most noble Sir Geoffrey Barron, a sincere Catholic, of the highest fidelity, and of singular eloquence, who had been deputed by the confederate Catholics of Ireland, as their envoy, to his most Christian Majesty, was hanged at the same time, and beheaded and quartered. The noble Dominick Fanning, too, ex-mayor of Limerick, and alderman, a man well known, and of the highest integrity, who had rendered many services to the confederated Catholics, and had in his public offices conferred much benefit on the whole kingdom as well as on the city, was in like manner executed at the same place, and happily exchanged life for death, on the same day and at the same place, and by the same martyrdom. Father Laurence Wallis, a priest, also passed to a more blissful life; and with him, Daniel O’Higgin, a medical doctor, a wise and pious man, was led to the scaffold.“ (Broudin, cap. 8)
12. It would be easy to multiply these extracts, but suffice it to say that the city was laid desolate, and that those who escaped the sword were despoiled of all they possessed, and then driven from its walls. We shall conclude this article with the words of St. Vincent, who, having been informed by the superior of the order in Ireland of the number of those who had suffered death for the faith in Limerick, cried out: „The blood of these martyrs wil not be forgotten before God, and sooner or later will produce an abundant harvest of Catholicity“ – (Abelly, loc.cit. page 220). And this prophecy is wonderfully fulfilled in our days, when our holy religion is producing such admirable fruits in Limerick and in every part of the kingdom, and restoring, even in the midst of poverty, its former splendour and glory. In the last two centuries as well as in the early ages of the Church, the truth of the maxim of Tertullian has been fully confirmed, ”The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church“.