Kenraghty, Maurice

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KENRAGHTY, MAURICE

Irish martyr; b. Kilmallock, date unknown; d. Clonmel, Tipperary, April 30, 1585. He was a silversmith's son. After earning his bachelor of theology degree abroad, Kenraghty became chaplain to Gerald, 16th Earl of Desmond. During Desmond's rebellion Kenraghty was captured in Sept. 1583 by Murtough MacSweeney, one of Lord Roche's mercenaries, and imprisoned in Clonmel. During Passiontide, 1585, Victor White, a citizen of Clonmel, bribed Kenraghty's jailer to release him for one night to administer the Sacraments. The jailer, however, betrayed them; White was arrested, but Kenraghty escaped. Apparently he surrendered himself in return for the release of White and was condemned to death for high treason. When he was offered pardon if he acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the queen, he declined and was hanged, drawn, and quartered.

Bibliography: d. murphy, Our Martyrs (Dublin 1896). r. bagwell, Ireland Under the Tudors, 3 v. (London 188590). r. d. edwards, Church and State in Tudor Ireland (New York 1935).

[j. g. barry]

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