All the Christian churches continue to mark the new millennium in one form or another. Before Christmas, the bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, led a pilgrim walk of reconciliation through his diocese which lasted over a week. Now, the diocese of Ferns has issued a compendium of diocesan history edited by Rev Walter Forde.
There is much off-the-beaten track information in this publication which will command interest far beyond the confines of the diocese of Ferns. For instance, in an article by Rev Brendan Nolan and Bernard Cushen, we learn that Father Ned Redmond, parish priest of Ferns during 1798, in his student days in France saved Napoleon from drowning. Again, we learn that the late Bishop of Ferns, Dr Donal Herlihy, was wounded by the Black and Tans as a boy while playing football in a field near his home and, as a result, lost a lung.
First Mass
Other facts to emerge are that Father James Dixon from Crossabeg celebrated the first Mass on Australian soil; that in his diary, under August 26th, 1835, the poet Thomas Moore describes a visit to the Presentation Convent, Wexford, where he planted a tree which was later destroyed by lightning; that the Rev Henry Francis Lyte, who composed the hymn Abide With Me, was once Church of Ireland curate in Taghmon; and that the pectoral cross worn by Bishop Comiskey of Ferns was originally worn by Cardinal Cullen and contains a well-authenticated relic of the True Cross. Finally, there is the information that the bells of the long-demolished Selskar Abbey in Wexford are now in the Rivers Street Church, Liverpool.
The confusion that attended episcopal assignments at the time of the Reformation is underlined in an article by Patrick Comerford, foreign desk editor of this newspaper. There was, apparently, no Catholic bishop of Ferns from 1589 to 1624.
In this compendium, which spans the period 600 to 2000, the contents are necessarily selective, as the editor points out. This means that some major events are not touched upon. For instance, there was the false allegation against Bishop Caulfield, bishop during the 1798 rebellion, by a noted bigot, Sir Richard Musgrave. The bishop rebutted the charges to the satisfaction of fair-minded neutral observers.
In the strident sectarianism of 18th-century Wexford, there were bright spots here and there. For instance, a Quaker, Mr Jacob Poole, on his way home from Killiane, on a stormy day in 1795, came upon a group of people kneeling on the muddy ground outside a miserable hut where Mass was being celebrated. Touched by the scene, Mr Poole shortly afterwards repaired to the house of the parish priest, Father O'Toole, made land available free of charge for the building of a church at Kilmachree, and gave a handsome cash donation.
The most penetrating analysis of all comes from the Rev Seamus S. de Val who traces the Catholic bishops through the centuries, including the schismatically consecrated Alexander Devereux, formerly abbot of Dunbrody, whose nephew, Nicholas Devereux, became the first Protestant bishop of the diocese.
Arguably, the most noteworthy of all the Catholic bishops of Ferns was, according to Canon de Val, Ambrose O'Callaghan, a Franciscan, who became bishop in 1729. He was for a time guardian of St Isidore's Rome and later guardian of the Franciscan Friary in Wexford.
`Scarlet Pimpernel'
As bishop, he lived a kind of Scarlet Pimpernel existence, residing in the Wexford Friary, using the name "Dr Walker" as an alias to avoid detection in his work, and often signing documents as "A. Walker". He was, it appears, often a guest in the houses of the gentry who seem to have been unaware "that the quiet, affable Mr Walker was a Popish believer at all, much less the Popish bishop of Ferns".
His successor was Bishop Nicholas Sweetman of Newbawn, Co Wexford, who, as a supporter of the Jacobite cause, was arrested and questioned on a number of occasions. He built a house for himself in Wexford's High Street, which now forms two separate buildings and near to which I once resided.
There is a unique aspect to the diocese of Ferns. The Catholic bishop of Ferns is the only Catholic bishop in Ireland who does not reside in his cathedral town, Enniscorthy. He resides instead in the town of Wexford, 15 miles away.