The Irish Martyrs

By Bob Lord and Penny Lord

But God's beloved children of Ireland are a paradox in terms. Those who only see the surface of the Irish people, don't know about the years of suffering, persecution, famine, Martyrdom, and near annihilation of them as a people, all for their Faith. When they joke that there are more Irish in Boston than in Ireland, there is somewhat of a note of melancholy, mixed with the joke. Those who left for a better life in the United States, did no favor to those who remained. It just made their struggle more difficult. Most people don't know about the brave men and women who stood up against the powers of Hell, and survived only because of their great faith in their Catholic Church, and their complete dependence on the Mother of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Journeys of Faith
• Release date: Apr 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458019387

Bob Lord

Bob and Penny Lord renowned Catholic Authors and hosts on EWTN. They are best known for their media on Miracles of the Eucharist and Many Faces of Mary. They have been dubbed experts on the Catholic Saints. They produced over 200 television programs for EWTN global television network and wrote over 25 books and hundreds of ebooks.

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The Irish Martrys

Bob and Penny Lord

Published by Bob and Penny Lord at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Bob and Penny Lord

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The Irish Martyrs

Ireland is an enchanted land, famous for its shamrocks and harps, leprechauns, shillelaghs, and green-eyed coleens, lightly sprinkled with freckles on skin as white as milk. It is called the Emerald Isle, and the national color is green; Ireland is lush green, almost tropical in certain areas. The Irish people are always pictured as being gay, musical, with the love of all things festive. In our mind's eye, we see them as being Bing Crosby or Barry Fitzgerald, of Going My Way, which is lovely.

They have grand traditions, such as the monkeys left over from the time when St. Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland using monkeys. There are those antagonists of Ireland, and all things Irish, who would demean God's special children by the derogatory moniker Monkeys, because of this tradition of St. Patrick. There is a possibility that it wasn't the best idea for St. Patrick to use monkeys as a means to accomplish this task. He may not have been thinking of the hazing the Irish people would be receiving in centuries down the line. But keep in mind, he may not have been Irish originally. There are rumors that he may even have had Roman roots, which might account for the ongoing battle between the Irish and the Italians. It may have taken St. Patrick all his life to be trained properly in the ways of being Irish. We do know that when he entered the gates of Heaven, he was definitely Irish.

But God's beloved children of Ireland are a paradox in terms. Those who only see the surface of the Irish people, don't know about the years of suffering, persecution, famine, Martyrdom, and near annihilation of them as a people, all for their Faith. When they joke that there are more Irish in Boston than in Ireland, there is somewhat of a note of melancholy, mixed with the joke. Those who left for a better life in the United States, did no favor to those who remained. It just made their struggle more difficult. Most people don't know about the brave men and women who stood up against the powers of Hell, and survived only because of their great faith in their Catholic Church, and their complete dependence on the Mother of God.

Possibly this is why, when we wrote about Our Lady's Apparition at Knock, Ireland, on August 21, 1879, we thought her reasoning for not speaking to her people was because she had no complaint. We felt she was commending a faithful people for a job well done. We still feel that way, but we know that Our Lady had much more to say than she was given credit for. But all of that was covered in our book on the Many Faces of Mary, a Love Story.

There have been reports in 1985-6 that Our Lady has appeared to different people in various parts of Ireland. At a little shrine devoted to our Lady of Lourdes in Cappoquin, Waterford County, which we visited in 1984, a year before the reported apparitions, Our Lady allegedly complained about the loss of Faith that was being experienced by the people in Ireland. We are not going to attempt to speculate as to the veracity of these reports. We will say, however, that if they were true, they give more credence to the silent apparition of Mary at Knock in 1879.

In 1980, we were in Assisi. We were bemoaning the outcast state of vocations in the United States. We asked a well-known Franciscan Priest, who had become a dear friend over the years, to pray for vocations in our country. He leaned over to us, and said, very seriously, You Americans are too fat. You will not see vocations until you become lean, like the Irish and the Polish and the Mexicans. We could not understand what he meant, or how we could lump these three diverse ethnic groups together. But since that time, and especially during the research of this book, we have found that powerful common denominator that links the three together.

Irish and Mexicans and Polish have one outstanding trait in common. You might think to yourself, what a combination. And you would be right. We believe, however, that our marvelous Pope John Paul II picked up on this over thirteen years ago. It might be why he loves those three cultures so much, why he can relate to each of the other two ethnic groups. This marvelous trait, which the Lord has been able to work with down through the centuries is Holy Stubbornness. They are bullheaded when it comes to their Church. Proof of that is how they have held up under extreme persecution during various crucial periods in their history. Without that gift from the Lord, none of these three groups of Powerful Catholics would exist as a people or as Catholics today. Thank You Jesus; praise You Jesus.

The Struggle of the Irish People

The Irish people had been considered highly intelligent and extremely spiritual. Ireland was called the Land of Saints and Soldiers. Many of their young men became Priests and brothers, and