Brian McGurk (Maguirc) was a Catholic Dean of Armagh during the Penal Times in Ireland, and was

Vicar-General A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...

to St Oliver Plunkett.

Background

He was imprisoned in Armagh under penal laws in 1712 while in his late eighties. He died in Gaol aged 91 years Brian McGurk was Dean of Armagh for forty years and parish priest of Termonmagurk 1660-1672, arrested five times under the penal law statute, but who out-witted the courts with his knowledge of canon and civil laws yet dying at ninety-one in Armagh gaol. He is still revered as a ' white martyr' in Termonmagurk where both churches, Catholic and Protestant are under the patronage of St. Columcille, the McGurks being the saint's

coarb A coarb, from the Old Irish ''comarbae'' (Modern Irish ''comharba'', Latin: ''hērēs''), meaning "heir" or "successor", was a distinctive office of the medieval church among the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. In this period coarb appears intercha ...

s and

erenagh The medieval Irish office of erenagh (Old Irish: ''airchinnech'', Modern Irish: ''airchinneach'', Latin: ''princeps'') was responsible for receiving parish revenue from tithes and rents, building and maintaining church property and overseeing the ...

s in that parish.. Brian was born and raised in the townland of Aughnagreggan, near

Carrickmore Carrickmore () is a village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated in the historic barony of Omagh East, the civil parish of Termonmaguirk and the Roman Catholic Parish of Termonmaguirc between Cookstown, Dungannon and Omagh. ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

. In 2013 a small monument was erected on the site of his home to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his death. A secondary school in the village is named after him. A Celtic cross stands in the grounds of the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to his memory.

References

*T. MacDonald (1948), ''Dean Bryan McGurk, a hero of the penal days; with historical notes on his times and his native parish, Termonmagurk, Co. Tyrone''

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGurk, Brian Roman Catholic deans 17th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Irish people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in British detention Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 18th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests