Dublin, Ireland, Nov 1, 2025 /
06:08 am
The election of left-wing Catherine Connolly last week as Ireland’s 10th president was marked by low voter turnout, a narrow field of candidates, and an unprecedented number of 213,738 spoiled ballots, representing 12.9% of votes cast.
Many of the spoiled ballots, which are ballots that cannot be counted due to errors in marking or deliberate defacement, were from Catholic voters protesting the government parties’ interference in candidate selection, which resulted in the prominent Catholic figure, Maria Steen, not appearing on the ballot.
The election outcome reflects the current secular makeup of the Republic of Ireland, a sharp contrast to the devout sacramental Catholicism practiced by the founding fathers of modern Ireland, which include the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising who faced execution by British forces.
Capuchin accompaniment
The Capuchin friars played a central role in the 1916 Easter Rising, first in helping communicate a ceasefire to the British forces and among groups of Irish rebels; and subsequently, in ministering to the rebels facing execution.
Capuchin friars’ eyewitness accounts of the condemned men’s final hours and the immediate aftermath of that rising detail the devout Catholic faith of its leaders.
The friars recollected the men praying the rosary, confessing their sins, receiving holy Communion, and attending Mass in the hours and days before their deaths.
Moving descriptions include those of leader Pádraig Pearse praying in his cell before a crucifix; of Thomas MacDonagh shot at dawn wearing a rosary given to him by his sister, who was a nun; and an already fatally wounded James Connolly making a final act of contrition before being executed tied to a chair.
Of Connolly’s death, Capuchin friar Father Aloysius recalled that he strongly insisted that the soldiers leave him alone with Connolly so that he could hear his confession.
He recounted at the time: “He was brought down and laid on a stretcher in an ambulance. Father Sebastian and myself drove with him to Kilmainham. Stood behind the firing party during the execution. Father Eugene McCarthy, who had attended Seán Mac Dermott before we arrived, remained and anointed Connolly immediately after the shooting.”
Though sacramental devotion in the face of certain death may seem remarkable to the contemporary reader, Jesuit historian Father Fergus O’Donoghue told CNA it was simply characteristic of the time.
Leader Joseph Mary Plunkett’s mother recalls her son’s last few minutes with a Capuchin named Father Albert: “Father, I want you to know that I am dying for the glory of God and the honor of Ireland,” Plunkett told the priest.
“That’s all right, my son,” Father Albert answered. In a few minutes, the firing squad carried out its orders.
The ‘skirl of the pipes’ heard in the Vatican
Among the leaders executed was Éamonn Ceannt from County Galway.
Ceannt was an Irish-language activist, athlete, keen musician — and a devout Catholic.
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
One of the highlights of his life that he contemplated in his final hours was a visit to Rome in 1908 as official piper for a visiting group of Irish athletes, where he performed for Pope Pius X.
In a book titled “The Glorious Seven,” Seamus G. O’Kelly wrote: “His Holiness the Pope heard of the sensation which the Irishman had created at the Roman Stadium, and summoned the young piper to appear before him, and to play for him.”
“Two days later as His Holiness waited at the Vatican … the skirl of the pipes was heard again, this time in the Vatican chambers, and very soon Éamonn Ceannt marched up to the feet of the Holy Father playing ‘The Wearing of the Green,’ knelt, and kissed the pope’s ring.”
After the performance, the pope bestowed his apostolic blessing on the piper and the Irish athletic team.
O’Donoghue reminded CNA that seeing a pope, let alone meeting him, would have been remarkable during the “Prisoner in the Vatican” era, when pontiffs did not even venture out onto the balcony.
Ceannt was not the only person associated with the Easter Rising to meet a pope. Count Plunkett was the father of Joseph Mary Plunkett, another of the executed leaders.
The elder Plunkett was dispatched to Rome to notify the pope of the forthcoming insurrection. Pope Benedict XV listened and gave his blessing to the participants.
O’Donoghue told CNA that he was the first pope to support Irish nationalism: “He wasn’t open to pleasing English aristocrats the way the previous popes had been.”
The Irish Republic envisaged in 1916 would guarantee religious and civil liberty, equal rights, and equal opportunities to all its citizens, cherishing all the children of the nation equally. For the executed leaders and their Capuchin confessors, Irish Republicanism and Catholicism were interwoven.
The question remains: How would they view the recent election and a secularized Ireland?
Patrick J Passmore lives on the north coast of Ireland. He has worked with St Brigid Media on a range of projects as a consultant and writer.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.