O'DONNELL AND THE SEE OF RAPHOE the Cromwellian conquest, and after 1 Allow me, then, ·Mons·eigineur, ·to the fading out of their own hopes for unite my voice with those of so many a restoration of their ancient rights others, that I may add my most in ·Ireland, they gradually lost inter- humble thanks, and that I may giv·e est in ecclesiastical appointments in a Your Eminence a further opportunity land with which they had lost intim- of deserving well · of this island. ate contact-which had, indeed, he- Tne late: Mons. O'Reilly, Bishop come for them rathe1· shadowy. of Raphoe, having been reduced as a II result of seve1·al vrears' illness, to a Nevertheless, though exiled state of second childhood, committed O'Donnel.ls may have ceased actively the care of his diocese to his Vicar to interest themselves in Irish affairs, GeneraL The pastors of the diocese eccesiastical or secular, a tTadition, having cause to complain about this or a memory of their right to a voic~ man, wrote to ine, as did a neighbourin Church appointments, seems to inig Bishop, a year ago, to interest myhave persisted in Raphoe. This is sug- self in having a ·Coadjutor named, gested by a document -recently •brought and they asked me to arrange it so to light.a This document is a petition that ·t1he choice would fall on thc.1 Revd. addressed to the Holy ·see in 1777 by Father Patrick Thally of the Order of Count 0 Donel, a member o:& the Austrian Branch of the Family, in favour of the appointment of a Franciscan 8"I to the bishopric of - Raphoe. As the presumption is that it has ·never been published, and as H -may be of interhave to thank my confrere, Father Bede Lane, OJ<M., St. Isidore's College, Rome, for drawmg my attention to this, and also to the -0ther document quoted in the Jatter part of this adicle. It was he who kindly supplied me with copies of them. E..St to Donegal readers of-this -Annual, I am printing it here. The original is in French; but l am taking the liberty of giving a translation of it, while inserting a copy Of the French ·original as an Appendbc The tnmslation runs: Monseigneur : The solicitude of Your Eminence fOi· the Irish Mission, and the trouble which you have given yourself for the sake of this -unfortunate island, deserve· the sincerest gratitude of ·all who are interested in the welfare of this country. 6Arch. Hib. IV, p.303. 7Ibid. pp. 304-305, 305-307, 307, 308-309, 309-310. The Report on the Fran.~isran MSS gives reference to further documents on this subject, covering, roug,hly, thE.' years 1626-1631. These have been prin:ed in O'Donova~'s work-now hard to procure-The o~Donnells in ExU.e; but Mr. Rupert O'Cochlainn kindly sent me copies of them. Apropus of the ·suggestion that there 1Was ·in Raph-Oe a tradition t1nat the O'Donnclls had a voice in episcopal appointments, it is of interest to note -that Hugh O Donnell, pastor ·of - Killybegs, · writing to Romt.1 on · 25th August, 1777, stated : 'J.t was formerly the custom that on the de.ath of a bishop (of Raphoe), our most noble patron, 0 Donnell . . . ; with the consent of the Chapter al1Ways pre~E.nted the -most wort1hy candidate ... • He means, presumaibly,that O Donnell presE.nted a candidate to Rome for app•roval. But one cannot give too much creclc.nce to that statement; for the pastor ol Killybegs was at loggerheads with his bishop when he made that .:i.ssE..1rtion; he had an axe to grind. 473.
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