OLIVER PLUNKETT
Plunckett was the last Roman Catholic martyr to be executed in Britain. He was accused of conspiring against the state by allegedly plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country, and for levying a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion. The English have always feared ever since Henry VIII severed England from the Roman Catholic Church, that the Papacy was plotting to restore Catholicism to England and sponsor an invasion of Ireland. And indeed that was true in several cases, but nowhere near as many as the English imagined. In this case, paranoia prevailed, and the trial was pretty much a farce, but he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered which he was.
Alcoholism among the Irish Priesthood has been a continuous problem, as it has been for Irish people in general. At the time, the Bishop nor anyone else understood addiction, and they were unaware that the Irish genetic code carries a high degree of susceptibility to alcoholism so they really were not able to ameliorate the problem much.
Oliver Plunkett (or Oliver Plunket) (Irish: Oilibhéar Pluincéid), was the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland who was the last victim of the Popish Plot. He was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, thus becoming the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.
