18th Century School Portrait of Oliver Plunkett Oil on canvas, oval, 42 x 34cm Saint Oliver Plunkett (1629-1681) was ordained a priest in 1654 having spent nine years studying in Rome and went...

18th Century School Portrait of Oliver Plunkett Oil on canvas, oval, 42 x 34cm Saint Oliver Plunkett (1629-1681) was ordained a priest in 1654 having spent nine years studying in Rome and went on to represent the Irish bishops in Rome. Back in Plunkett's native Ireland the Irish Confederate Wars and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649-1653) had taken place. The ban on Catholicism that resulted meant that he could not return to home until 1670. Upon arrival back in Ireland he set up numerous schools, including a Jesuit College in Drogheda and played a massive part in the reorganisation of the Catholic church including tackling problems such as alcoholism within the clergy itself. Plunkett was forced into hiding in 1673 with a resurge of the prosecution of Catholics, during which the Jesuit College was destroyed. During the Popish Plot, false rumours that he was planning a French invasion and conspiracy against the state took root and despite his use of disguises he was found and arrested in 1679. Taken to Newgate prison in London,Plunkett stood trial twice. He was not convicted in the first trial, but neither was he released, and at his second trial, in June 1681, he was found guilty of high treason ''for promoting Catholic faith''. The sentence passed down was death, and Plunkett was hung drawn and quartered in Tyburn on 1st July 1681. He was the last Catholic to be martyred in England. When Oliver Plunkett was canonised in 1975 he became the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years. Painted portraits of the saint are none too common - one is housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London, while Ireland's own National Gallery boasts number of prints by Garret Morphey, but no paintings.

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