Terence Albert O'Brien () (1600 – 30 October 1651) was an Irish priest of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

and

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Bishop of Emly The Bishop of Emly (; ) was a separate episcopal title which took its name after the village of Emly in County Tipperary, Ireland. In both the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland, it has been united with other sees. History The monaste ...

. During the

Cromwellian conquest of Ireland The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England, initially led by Oliver Cromwell. It forms part of the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars, and wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three ...

, he was captured by the

New Model Army The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 t ...

following the Siege of Limerick. After a

drumhead court-martial A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to render summary justice for offenses committed in action. The term is said to originate from drums used as improvised tables and drumheads as writing surfaces at fast-track mil ...

, he was hanged by order of General

Henry Ireton Henry Ireton (baptised 3 November 1611; died 26 November 1651) was an English general in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and a son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell. He died of disease outside Limerick in November 165 ...

at Gallows Green, officially for advising against the surrender of the city, but in reality as part of the

religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic oppression of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within socie ...

of the

Catholic Church in Ireland The Catholic Church in Ireland, or Irish Catholic Church, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See. With 3.5 million members (in the Republic of Ireland), it is the largest Christian church in Ireland. In ...

that began under

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

and ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Bishop O'Brien was beatified as one of 17

Irish Catholic Martyrs Irish Catholic Martyrs () were 24 Irish men and women who have been beatified or canonized for both a life of heroic virtue and for dying for their Catholic faith between the reign of King Henry VIII and Catholic Emancipation in 1829. The more ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

on 27 September 1992.CREAZIONE DI VENTUNO NUOVI BEATI: OMELIA DI GIOVANNI PAOLO II
Piazza San Pietro - Domenica, 27 settembre 1992.

Biography

Terence O'Brien was born into the

Gaelic nobility of Ireland This article concerns the Gaelic nobility of Ireland from ancient to modern times. It only partly overlaps with Chiefs of the Name because it excludes Scotland and other discussion. It is one of three groups of Irish nobility, the others bei ...

Cappamore Cappamore () is a small town in northeast County Limerick in the midwest of Ireland. It is also a parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. Location and facilities Cappamore is 20 km east of Limerick city, on the bank ...

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

. Both of his parents were from the

derbhfine The derbfine ( ; , from 'real' + 'group of persons of the same family or kindred', thus literally 'true kin'electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language s.vderbḟine/ref>) was a term for patrilineal groups and power structures defined in the fi ...

of the last

Chief of the Name The Chief of the Name, or in older English usage Captain of his Nation, is the recognised head of a family or clan ( Irish and Scottish Gaelic: ''fine'') in Ireland and Scotland. Ireland There are instances where Norman lords of the time like ...

Clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

O'Brien Arradh and claimed

lineal descent A lineal or direct descendant, in legal usage, is a blood relative in a person's direct line of descent – the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. In a legal procedure sense, lineal descent refers to the acquisition of estate b ...

from

Brian Boru Brian Boru (; modern ; 23 April 1014) was the High King of Ireland from 1002 to 1014. He ended the domination of the High King of Ireland, High Kingship of Ireland by the Uí Néill, and is likely responsible for ending Vikings, Viking invasio ...

. His family still owned an estate of 2,500

Irish acre Irish measure or plantation measure was a system of units of land measurement used in Ireland from the 16th century plantations until the 19th century, with residual use into the 20th century. The units were based on " English measure" but ...

s centred around Tuogh, which was later confiscated by the

Commonwealth of England The Commonwealth of England was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when Kingdom of England, England and Wales, later along with Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, were governed as a republi ...

. He joined the

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

in 1621 at Limerick, where his uncle, Maurice O'Brien, was then prior. He took the name "Albert" after the Dominican scholar

Albertus Magnus Albertus Magnus ( 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great, Albert of Swabia, Albert von Bollstadt, or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop, considered one of the great ...

. In 1622 he went to study in

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Or ...

, returning eight years later to become prior at St. Saviour's in

Limerick City Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

. In 1643 he was provincial of the

Dominicans in Ireland The Dominican Order (''Order of Preachers'') has been present in Ireland since 1224 when the first foundation was established in Dublin, a monastic settlement north of the River Liffey, where the Four Courts is located today. This was quickly fo ...

. In 1647 he was consecrated Bishop of Emly by

Giovanni Battista Rinuccini Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592–1653) was an Italian Roman Catholic archbishop in the mid-seventeenth century. He was a noted legal scholar and became chamberlain to Pope Gregory XV. In 1625 Pope Urban VIII made him the Archbishop of Fer ...

. During the

Irish Confederate Wars The Irish Confederate Wars, took place from 1641 to 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars in Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, all then ...

, like most Irish Catholics, he sided with

Confederate Ireland Confederate Ireland, also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation, was a period of Irish Catholic Church, Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1652, during the Irish Confederate Wars, Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristoc ...

. His services to the Catholic Confederation were highly valued by the Supreme Council. The bishop would treat the wounded and support Confederate soldiers throughout the conflict. O'Brien was against a peace treaty that did not guarantee Catholic freedom of worship in Ireland and in 1648 signed the declaration against the Confederate's truce with the Earl of Inchiquin who had committed atrocities such as the

Sack of Cashel The sack of Cashel, also known as the massacre of Cashel, took place on 15 September 1647 during the Irish Confederate Wars, when Cashel Castle in County Tipperary was taken by a Protestant Parliamentarian army commanded by the Baron ...

against Catholic clergy and civilians, and the declaration against the Protestant royalist leader the Duke of Ormonde in 1650 who, due to his failure to resist the

was not deemed fit to command Catholic troops. He was one of the prelates, who, in August 1650 offered the Protectorate of Ireland to

Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine Charles IV (5 April 1604 – 18 September 1675) was Duke of Lorraine from 1624 until his death in 1675, with a brief interruption in 1634, when he abdicated under French pressure in favor of his younger brother, Nicholas Francis. Life He came ...

. In 1651 Limerick was besieged and O'Brien urged a resistance that infuriated the Ormondists and Parliamentarians. Following surrender, he was found ministering to the wounded and ill inside a temporary plague hospital. As previously decided by the besieging army, O'Brien was denied quarter and protection. Along with

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

Thomas Stritch and English Royalist officer Colonel Fennell, Bishop O'Brien was tried by a drumhead court martial and sentenced to

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

General

.Terence Albert O'Brien
''The Catholic Encyclopedia''] Retrieved 28 September 2007. On 30 October 1651, Bishop O'Brien was first hanged at Gallows Green and then posthumous execution, posthumously beheaded. His severed head was afterwards displayed spiked upon the river gate of the city.

Legacy

Henry Ireton fell ill of the plague that was raging through the city, and died on 26 November. His loss reportedly "struck a great sadness into Cromwell" and he was considered a great loss to the

. There are various anecdotes about his demise from Irish ecclesiastical and English Royalist sources, by whom Ireton's death has been depicted as divine retribution for the hanging of Bishop O'Brien, who prior to his death had called upon Ireton to answer at God's judgment seat for the

's massacres. For example, the ''Hibernica Dominicana'' claims that on his death bed, Ireton was "privately muttering to himself, 'I never gave the aid of my counsel towards the murder of that bishop; never, never; it was the council of war did it... I wish I had never seen this popish bishop'." In contrast, the memoirs of English

Cavalier The term ''Cavalier'' () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of Charles I of England and his son Charles II of England, Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum (England), Int ...

officer

Philip Warwick Sir Philip Warwick (24 December 160915 January 1683), English writer and politician, born in Westminster, was the son of Thomas Warwick, or Warrick, a musician. Life He was educated at Eton, he travelled abroad for some time and in 1636 became ...

allege that, in his delirious state, Ireton's last words were, "Blood! blood! I must have more blood!" In a ruling that was far ''less'' popular among his own staff officers, Ireton had similarly sentenced the former

Governor of Limerick The Governor of Limerick was a military officer who commanded the garrison at Limerick in Ireland. List of governors * William de Burgh * –1622: Sir Maurice Berkeley * 1622–1642: George Courtenay, 1st Baronet, of Newcastle * 1650–51: ...

Hugh Dubh O'Neill Hugh Dubh O'Neill, 5th Earl of Tyrone ("Black Hugh", meaning "black-haired" or "dark tempered") (1611–1660) was an Irish soldier of the 17th century. He is best known for his participation in the Irish Confederate Wars and in particular his de ...

death by hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. ...

as well; New Model Army General

Edmund Ludlow Edmund Ludlow (c. 1617–1692) was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his ''Memoirs'', which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source ...

immediately countermanded the order following Ireton's death. According to historian D.P. Conyngham, "It is impossible to estimate the number of Catholics slain the ten years from 1642 to 1652. Three Bishops and more than 300 priests were put to death for their faith. Thousands of men, women, and children were sold as slaves for the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

; Sir W. Petty mentions that 6,000 boys and women were thus sold. A letter written in 1656, quoted by Lingard, puts the number at 60,000; as late as 1666 there were 12,000 Irish slaves scattered among the West Indian islands. Forty thousand Irish fled to the Continent, and 20,000 took shelter in the

Hebrides The Hebrides ( ; , ; ) are the largest archipelago in the United Kingdom, off the west coast of the Scotland, Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Ou ...

or other Scottish islands. In 1641, the population of Ireland was 1,466,000, of whom 1,240,000 were Catholics. In 1659 the population was reduced to 500,091, so that very nearly 1,000,000 must have perished or been driven into exile in the space of eighteen years. In comparison with the population of both periods, this was even worse than the famine extermination of our own days." Inishbofin Harbour

After taking the island in 1653, the

turned Inishbofin, County Galway, into a prison camps for

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...

s arrested while exercising their religious ministry covertly in other parts of Ireland.

Inishmore Inishmore ( , or ) is the largest of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, off the west coast of Ireland. With an area of and a population of 820 (as of 2016), it is the second-largest island off the Irish coast (after Achill) and most populo ...

, in the

Aran Islands The Aran Islands ( ; , ) or The Arans ( ) are a group of three islands at the mouth of Galway Bay, off the west coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a total area around . They constitute the historic barony (Ireland), barony of Aran in ...

, was used for exactly the same purpose. The last priests held on both islands were finally released following the

Stuart Restoration The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland. It replaced the Commonwealth of England, established in January 164 ...

in 1662.

Investigation and beatification

After the successful fight that was eventually spearheaded by

Daniel O'Connell Daniel(I) O’Connell (; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Irelan ...

for Catholic Emancipation between 1780 and 1829, interest revived as the

was rebuilding after three hundred years of being strictly illegal and underground. As a result, a series of re-publications of primary sources relating to the period of the persecutions and meticulous comparisons against archival Government documents in London and Dublin from the same period were made by Daniel F. Moran and other historians. The first Apostolic Process under Canon Law began in Dublin in 1904, after which a ''

positio A ''positio'' (short for the Latin ''positio super virtutibus'': "position on the virtues") is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a Catholic person is declared Venerable, the second of four steps on the path to can ...

'' was submitted to the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

. In the 12 February 1915 Apostolic decree ''In Hibernia, heroum nutrice'',

Pope Benedict XV Pope Benedict XV (; ; born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, ; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922) was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I a ...

formally authorized the formal introduction of additional Causes for Roman Catholic Sainthood. During a further Apostolic Process held at Dublin between 1917 and 1930 and against the backdrop of the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

and

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, the evidence surrounding 260 alleged cases of Roman Catholic martyrdom were further investigated, after which the findings were again submitted to the Holy See. On 27 September 1992, O'Brien and sixteen other

were beatified by

. June 20th, the anniversary of the 1584 execution of

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female ...

martyr

Dermot O'Hurley Dermot O'Hurley (c. 1530 – 19 or 20 June 1584)—also ''Dermod or Dermond O'Hurley'', () (Elizabethan English: ''Darby Hurley'' or ''Dr. Hurley'')McNeil 1930, p. 125.—was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel during the Elizabethan era rel ...

, was assigned as the feast day of all 17.Fenning, Hugh. "The Last Speech and Prayer of Blessed Terence Albert O'Brien, Bishop of Emly, 1651", ''Collectanea Hibernica'', no. 38, 1996, pp. 52–58. JSTOR
/ref> A large backlighted portrait of him is on display in St. Michael's Church, Cappamore, County Limerick, which depicts him during The Siege of Limerick.

References

External links

O'Brien, Terence Albert (Muiris Ó Briain Aradh)

Dictionary of Irish Biography The ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'' (DIB) is a biographical dictionary of notable Irish people and people not born in the country who had notable careers in Ireland, including both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. History The ...

.
Terence Albert O'Brien' file at Limerick City Library, Ireland''Lengthy biographic article from ''Hibernian Magazine'' 1864, p. 246
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Terence Albert 1600 births 1651 deaths Christian clergy from Limerick (city) 17th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland O'Brien Irish beatified people 17th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 17th-century venerated Christians Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Bishops of Emly 24 Irish Catholic Martyrs Executed people from County Limerick Irish Dominicans Dominican bishops Dominican martyrs History of Limerick (city) O'Brien dynasty

Biography

Legacy

Investigation and beatification

See also

References

External links