Thread by @ColemanDennehy, #OTD in 1612, the Bishop of Down and Connor, was executed alongside [...]

#OTD in 1612, the Bishop of Down and Connor, was executed alongside another priest, Patrick O'Loughran. The execution was gruesome and as a statement of state power and legal theatre, it was strategic error by the Castle.

I'll tweet details through the day

#DevanyDay

As with just about everything in EM Ire, details are disputed. There are several reports, some claiming to be eye witness, some are very hostile, whilst some are literally hagiographical. Barnaby Rich is a noted critic, and Philip O'Sullivan Beare is sympathetic.

There has been some more recent, excellent work on Devany by @tait_clodagh @jdmccafferty @john_mccavitt Aidan Clarke, PJ Corish, Kieran Devlin, JJ Silke, Terry Clavin

#DevanyDay

His name can be Conchobhar / Conoghor / Conor / Cornelius
Ó Duibheánnaigh / O'Devanney / Devany / O Devana / O Dovanna / O Doveny / O Duibeneus / Dovenius

Born in 1533 in Donegal - some suggest Raphoe, others Glenfin (Kilteevogue). Like O'Loughran, he was of an erenagh family

This equated to a quasi inherited status within the later medieval church in Ireland. He joined the Franciscans in his late teens, initially based at Donegal friary

By 1582, he is in Rome, being ordained to Down & Connor - making up much of modern Antrim & Down. The ceremony is in slightly more salubrious surround of Santa Maria dell’Anima, just off the Piazza Navonna. The spire has always caught my eye

Contending bishops from the from CofI weren't always in place in Down & Connor, and when were, they weren't always the best-behaved. Whilst the area wasn't part of the official plantation of Ulster, there had been much migration from Scotland in particular
#PresbyterianPresence

He was back in Ireland, certainly no later than 1587 for the Synod of Clogher, where he witnessed the promulgation of the Tridentine decrees.
#CounterReformation is very much up and running at this point. In many ways, it will be political as well as religious

Picked up around the Armada and held for two years.
He was released in 1590, after having being interviewed by Loftus and 'willingly submitted himself not only to take the oath of supremacy but also took his corporal oath to become His Majesty’s true and faithful subject’

According to Corish, 'He gave a carefully worded undertaking admitting that he had committed 'divers faults worthy of condign punishment' in 'matters of religion', but promised to be of good behaviour in this respect for the future.'

#ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmmmmm

It's difficult to know exactly what his politics were in the 1590s war in Ulster, but one source in Rome suggested dismissed him as 'a good man indeed, but too guileless [simplicior] to be of any great assistance' (Archivio Segreto Vaticano, fondo Borghese, III, 124C, fol. 78).

About this time #OTD in 1612, Devany was delivered to the sheriff of Dublin County at Dublin Castle, and thus began his and O'Loughran's final journey.

Let's take a look at how it got to this point, before we move on to the procession to the gallows and the terrible event

In early Summer, Devany was arrested at the home of Brian McHugh Og MacMahon in Ulster and had been performing confirmations in the area.
O'Loughran had been arrested in Cork.

Incarcerated for eight months, he had pious visitors and smuggled vestements for saying of Mass.

When initially taken, it was not obvious he would be tried and executed.

Most interestingly, there was very little statute legislation in Ireland that worked against Catholic clergy, unlike in England.

This is why most Irish martyrs were killed by martial law or just murdered

In fact, a regular common law trial with a bell'n'whistles public execution in the capital was very rare for a member of the clergy, and thus a high risk strategy.

With the Irish parliament due to sit, the administration was permitted to make an example in order to intimidate

This is an oft-cited communication from London to Dublin Castle giving permission and encouragement to proceed with a trial.
#DevanyWrongPlaceWrongTime - being Gaelic didn't help, but one of only two bishops in Ireland at the time, and conveniently in custody

We don't know much about his trial. Whilst O'Loughran almost certainly had contact rebels abroad, it's not certain that Devany was, or that he had committed treason, especially post-1605 when there was a general amnesty.

We know there was a packed jury, but then there always is

However, one gem we do have a full copy of the indictment as preserved in Book II of Bolton's A Justice of the Peace of Ireland

Why pick this one?

Usually run of the mill trials were prosecuted by non-professionals such as a local JP or the aggrieved person, but treason trials usually got a Attorney General, Solicitor General, or Serjeant at Law.
Overseen by Justices Sibthorp and Sarsfield (one New Eng, one Old Eng).

Counsel prosecuting was Protestant, as were the judges, all were by this stage.
Defense counsel was unheard of for any trials. The idea was that if the defendant just answered the questions honestly and with integrity, the judges would look after fairness and his interests.

The trial was held on Tuesday 28 January 1612.
It can't have taken more than a a few hours, and quite possibly less than an hour. Jury may not have even left their area to deliberate.

Let's just say that it's exceedingly rare to get a 'not guilty' verdict in a treason trial.

We don't know much of his last few days whether spent in relative comfort, but as mentioned earlier, he would have had Mass, and he and O'Loughran would have been able to minister each other in confession, etc. They may well have had another priest visit.

Devany had a strong interest in martyrology - he'd composed a list of those since Creagh that 'had testified to their faith in their blood'

It was used by Rothe when composing his Analecta - We can say with confidence that he gave the manner of his departure considerable thought

Northside was typical for execution, but on this occasion, the George's Hill was decided upon rather than the typical Oxmanstown Green.
I'm not sure why this was - Ox'town had more space!

Brendan's Café v @LawSocIreland

What are the chances of finding a Franciscan in the pic

The exact route is not known, but it would have most likely gone Castle Street, Skinners Row, some way down to Bridge Street, across the bridge, Church Street and then to the right.
On other occasions the bell was rung from @cccdub

The method of transport is was by cart. The CofI Bishop of Waterford went to his doom in a coach, with the condemned most likely with arms pinioned to the side. Armed guard escorted the transport.

As Rich (a very hostile source) suggests, the bishop was quiet as he progressed. Rich suggested he sat there 'still like a blocke' - he could also be portrayed as serene and in a most holy state.

As is suggested above, the crowd also included 'some that were of good sort and fashion'. Below suggests that 'the best mens wives within the cittie of Dublyne' were present and very vocal.

If public execution usually required condemnation of traitors by the populace, this was not going according to plan.
Whilst many of the population of Dublin were Catholic, they were loyal and considered themselves English. Such vocal sympathy to a Gaelic Irish bishop is stunning

As Conway wrote, 'the Catholics, despising the danger, cast themselves upon their knees to ask the Bishop's blessing, which he gave them to satisfy their devotion, and the blows and kicks of the heretics not sufficient to deter them'

We don't appear to have the exact text of Devany's speech (or Loughran's for that matter). We do know that Devany read Galations 1:8
According to Conway, part of his words were delivered in Irish, which again for a Dublin audience hanging on his every word, this is noteworthy.

To quote @jdmccafferty 'Such executions inverted everything – the guilty party was the hero, the crowd was there to watch and pray rather than curse and jeer. His speech from the gallows was a confession of faith, not a confession of guilt.'

Considering the procession begun around 2pm, and would have had to be well-concluded by sun-down (today at 5.09 + ten days for calendar difference), and the last rays of sun are relevant, we might suggest the execution occurred sometime between 3 and 4pm.

According to the Four Masters, there was some discussion on the scaffold about who would go first, and thus observe the violence. Devany, fearing O'Loughrane would lose his nerve, wanted to go second, but the priest insisted he would manage, which most agree he did.

The identity of the executioner is not clear. The same source suggests the original one was Irish and fled some time before his duties were to be performed. O'Sullivan Beare suggests an English murderer was pardoned on condition he carry out the execution.

Asks for forgiveness.

Standard punishment for treason Ireland is burning for women, and hanging, drawn and quartering for men.
Drawn on a hurdle, hanged and cut down whilst still alive, disemboweled, with innards burnt, and finally beheaded and then cut up for public view.

This did NOT happen

Having removed his cloak to reveal his Franciscan habit, he approached the noose, kissed it, brought the noose around his own neck, and drew a veil down over his face, holding his hands out to be tied - it would appear in his front.

At that point, as if by divine intervention, the setting sun broke through the cloud (the weather had been poor all day) and bathed the gallows in red light.
Soon after Devany was hanged and died soon after.
Why he was not cut down before death is not clear.

When he removes the head, the hangman pronounces the traditional phrase 'Behold, the head of a traitor', to which the crown reply 'Subito Sancto' (Make him a saint, immediately!!)

He put the head aside, and thus began perhaps the most shocking aspect, as the crowd surges and the relic-hunting begins in earnest.

Again, beware of Rich's commentary, but the fundamentals appear to be true.
Someone even runs off with the head.

During all of this watches O'Loughrane, who apparently manages to keep his cool. Mounting the scaffold reciting the canticle Nunc Dimittis. It's not clear if he makes a speech, but he does pray aloud. After, the crowd surges, but relics and restricted to blood stained cloths

The body parts appear to be exhibited over night and he's buried the following day at the gallows site, and this is what must have been the common pit
The following night his is disinterred and removed to another graveyard, probably St Thomas's outside the city towards Kilmainham

Much like the Christ, and I'm sure it was not lost on Devany or his colleagues, in dying an innocent man and going calmly to his death, he became even more influential.

Relics showed up soon after - Fleming thought the zeal for relics over the top. A rib emerged in Rome in 1617

Another, a piece of lined soaked in his blood was kept at my favourite Roman church, the Gesú, but it has since gone missing
His head was seen near Castlepollard in the 1640s - ’the eyes, skin and hair still fresh as if the head been severed from the shoulders that very hour’

And the miracles came.....a man with a paralyzed arm who had been praying that night at the gallows had its use restored.
The two daughters (playing the role of Cinderella's sisters) of Edward Brabstone, who had attended and shouted abuse at Devany and those venerating had their

coach over turned, and the coachman was flung from it and his arm broken.
One of these Protestant daughters, reputed to be a true beauty, was turned ugly overnight and her face disfigured.

So what can we learn from this:

State executions of political / cultural / religious figures in Ireland rarely seem to have any impact and rarely improve the situation. This is seen clearly in later centuries too.
It is surprising that Dublin Castle took so long to get it.

In seeking to intimidate the Catholic community before the elections for parliament, Chichester probably made it more cohesive. From his point of view, parliament was not successful his legislative programme had to be pared back.

In seeking to weaken Catholic resolve, it probably strengthened it.
In seeking to secure the state, it quite possibly weakened it and certainly did not have the desired effect.

What is perhaps most striking is that it certainly illustrates the fact that (and possible adds to it) Catholics in Ireland are coalescing around their religious identity and ethnic animosities are less relevant.
A Gaelic Irish Franciscan being venerated by the Pale community!!

Finally, considering that the Irish really have very little tradition of martyrology (compared to other European nations), they're actually very good at it, although we should remember that Devany was a specialist expert, having studied and written on it.
#PerformativeMartyrdom

It also reminds us that public executions of political/religious/cultural figures need to be carefully managed.
In a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-confessional kingdom like IRE, the cohesive society required to make public executions a state-supporting event did not exist

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~ FINIS ~
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