William Tirry

William Tirry (1609 – 12 May 1654) was a martyred Irish Roman Catholic priest who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992.

Life[]

Tirry was born into a well-to-do merchant family in Cork, Ireland in 1608,^[1] the son of Robert and Joan Tirry. He was named afterbhis uncle, the elder William Tirry, Bishop of Cork and Cloyne. Tirry was the grandson of Edmond Terry, or Tirry, Lord Mayor of Cork, and his wife Catherine Galway. His aunt Joan married Dominick Sarsfield, 1st Viscount Sarsfield, the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas: their son William, the 2nd Viscount, played an important role in Tirry's life as his patron and protector.^{[citation needed]}

Well educated, he learned Latin and Greek, but spoke Gaelic. At the age of eighteen he joined the Augustinian Order at St. Austin's Abbey in Cork, and studied in Valladolid, where he was ordained around 1634. He completed his studies in Paris, and then spent five years (1636–1641) in Brussels, Belgium.^[1]

He returned to Ireland in 1641. Because community life was impossible at the time, he served as secretary to his uncle, the bishop. Then he found a safe refuge with his Roman Catholic cousin William Sarsfield, 2nd Viscount Sarsfield, and acted as tutor to his sons. He was elected Provincial Secretary in 1646. Lord Sarsfield's death in 1648 deprived Tirry of his chief protector. In 1649 he was chosen as Prior of the Augustinian house in Skreen but was unable to assume his duties there as this was the same year that marked the beginning of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. A law was enacted on 6 January 1653 declaring that any Roman Catholic priest in Ireland was guilty of treason. Tirry was forced into hiding alongside other priests. Much of the time he found shelter with his distant cousins, the Everard's of Fethard. He was captured the following March about to celebrate the Easter Vigil, when three men reported his whereabouts for the £5 bounty.^{[citation needed]}

William was imprisoned at Clonmel and refused to adopt the Protestant religion. He was executed by hanging on 12 May 1654. He asked absolution if there should be a priest disguised in the crowd, thinking that a fellow Augustinian, Fr. Dennis O'Driscoll, the former provincial whose secretary William had been, was present.^[2] An account told by a friar who had been tried with William supplies some details of the day: "William, wearing his Augustinian habit, was led to the gallows praying the rosary. He blessed the crowd which had gathered, pardoned his betrayers and affirmed his faith. It was a moving moment for Catholics and Protestants alike."^[3]

Tirry was buried on the grounds of the ruined Augustinian abbey in Fethard. William Tirry was beatified with 16 other Irish martyrs on 27 September 1993.^[4] The Augustinians commemorate on 12 May.^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• The Ballad of William Tirry
• "Ireland", Augnet - 4845

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