HE exhorted his brethren not to abandon their flock but to withdraw until the storm passes
Little did St Oliver Plunkett know that he would create a storm 300 years later as modern technology tries to prove that his revered skull is the genuine article.
It is small and black and in a golden shrine. Thousands of pilgrims a month visit it and pray before it. However, scientists are unable to confirm its DNA as being that of a Plunkett. It is possible that it is not the head of the man who was hanged, drawn and quartered in Tyburn, London, on July 1st, 1681, for his beliefs.
"I am morally certain it is his head; from a historical point of view the head is comparatively easily traced," said Monsignor Francis Donnelly parish priest of St Peter's Church, Drogheda, where the head has been on display since 1921.
With a local doctor in 1994, he began trying to genetically link the head to the current Plunketts and to bones believed to come from the saint.
It is not the first time the disembodied head made the news. When there were moving statues in the West, in Drogheda they had the 300-year-old skull growing a beard. It wasn't, it was algae. That episode proves that contamination of the relic has taken place, making DNA testing very difficult to do.
"Myself and Dr Vincent Sheehan took a sample the size of a crumb of the skull. We have also given samples ourselves to exclude us from the results they are getting," said Monsignor Donnelly. Hundreds of thousands of people have touched the head and even if it was breathed on it could be contaminated. The scientists are unable to obtain DNA from the head sample owing to tissue degeneration and a low DNA yield. They sought more samples from us and we have sent off two samples from other relics." We are awaiting those results."
The seven bones on display in a recently-built shrine in St Peter's Church were presented to the parish in 1975, and locked away in the priest's safe and forgotten until 1990, when Monsignor Donnelly arrived. "I found them during my first weeks here; they were in the bottom of a concealed section of the safe and had been locked there for 15 years.
There is little room for error in the head but large room in the bones. If the bones are at variant with the head, I will still feel I should keep and display them." The DNA testing is being carried out in the US and results on the latest samples are expected daily."
The Northern Ireland Forensic Science Agency in Belfast says " DNA testing of relics has been done before but can be difficult if the remains have been mummified. Bone is not a particularly useful material. . . we may never get a definitive answer on this."
However, this is not expected to dampen the number of the saint's followers expected to take part in Sunday's annual St Oliver Plunkett Day procession in Drogheda. Until this storm passes, the reputed remains of the former Archbishop of Armagh will continue to be Drogheda's largest tourist attraction.