Nick Maxwell

San Pietro in Montorio, burial-place of the exiled Irish in Rome, 1608-1623

After their untimely deaths, variously from disease, exhaustion and deprivation, at least seven but possibly as many as eleven or more members of the O’Neill and O’Donnell exiles, including the earls themselves, were buried between 1608 and 1623 in San Pietro in Montorio. The form of the burials, the surviving grave-slabs and their inscriptions, the … Read more

Printing in the vernacular: the Louvain Project

When Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire (Florence Conry), appointed minister provincial of the Irish Franciscans at the general chapter of the order in Toledo in 1606, successfully petitioned Philip III of Spain that same year for permission to found a college in Louvain, he aimed to provide suitable priestly training for young Irish Franciscans. The first mention … Read more

Galileo and Peter Lombard

In 1979, in one of the first public addresses of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II called for a new study of the long-contested ‘Galileo affair’ that would permit ‘a frank recognition of wrongs from whatever side they came’. Needless to say, the initiative was widely welcomed, and when the pope established a formal commission … Read more

After the Flight: the Plantation of Ulster

When the principal Ulster lords, together with almost 100 of their followers, fled the province in September 1607 they left behind a situation of some confusion. Among their own followers the removal of the focus of local loyalties and the administrators of everyday life created a sense of despondency, and even of betrayal. Some of … Read more