pages 555 to 683 (4602 Kb) - Limerick City Council

632 C
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BISTORY OF LIMEBICK.
Dwed Limerc'cmb, to which he affixed a brief memoir of the life of the
Right Rev. Dr. O'Keeffe, who, as we have seen, was the first to enact
these statutes on the revival of religion after the violation of the treaty of
Limerick. In the government of the diocese, Dr. Young was strict and
particular, whilst in his demeanour to all classes, he was kindly, cheerful,
and affable. He won the affections by a charming manner, and preserved
that dignity which became the scholar and the prelate, without effort
or sffectation. Devoted to books, he read copiously and profitably; his
reading embraced every variety of subject connected with theology, the
Scriptures, canon law, the classics, history, ancient and modern, antiquities,
eta; and his annotations on the booka in his own as well as in the
diocesan libr , are, in some instances, extant, and show the extent and
versatility of 9 is information on almost every sub'ect connected with
aacred and profane literature. He, as well as the o a er bishops of Munster,
condemned in no measured terms the Rebellion of '98, which the
Irish e isco acy and clergy in general resisted with aU their dombined
strengt Ran ' B power. We do not find that he issued a pastoral add=
to his flock on the subject, at least we have no record of such as was
addressed by Dr. Moylan, of Cork, Dr. Hussey, of and Dr.
Michael Peter MacMahon, of Killal~e,~, who, at the time continued to
reside in Limerick. In all likelihood, Dr. Young did address a pastoral:
and that he exerted himself with zeal, skill, vigour, and success, in warning
his flock of the danger they incurred, there is no doubt whatever. As we
have already seen, he was one of the first in Limerick to insert his name ss
a subscriber to the &U e fund that was raised for the defence of the county
from the threatened 9 renoh invdon. Whilst he was loyal to the throne,
however, he thought that to afford the government a control over the privileges
of the hierarchy in the nomination of bishops, or in any other &a
or form, was to be .esisted by all honourable means and a pliances. g
opposed the insidious advances of Mr. Pitt and Lord Cas S ereagh as weU
for %he sub-ugation of the Catholic Church ss for the destruction of hi&
freedom. !In January, 1799, a meetin of certain Irish relates W@ held
in Dublin, at which resolutions were a % opted in favour o P a state provision
for the olergy, and of a veto on the appointmat of
the bishop. The name Young does not a p ~
among the names of the resolved on that itcaslon;
but we find bim in 1808, the Irish hierarchy held in
Dublin in the month of September that ear, denouncing the roposed
change, and statin~ in language not to L mistaken or misun B erstood,
that it was inexpedient to introduce an alteration in the canonical mode
hitherto observed in the nomination o F Irish Catholic Bishops. On the
24th of February, in the year 1810, another meeting of the Irish hierarchy
was held in Dublin, and resolutions to the same effect were adopted The
resolutions of 1808 were not only then confirmed, but their lordships resolved
that they neither sought nor desired any other earth1 consideration
for their spiritual minis to their flocks, save what the floc T s from a sense
of religioa and duty mig t voluntarily aord them. We find his name sub
7?
1 The episcopal real of the Right Rev. Dr. IthNahn b in the poaseasion of the Right Rev.
Dr. Power, Wjutor bishop of -0% who RI oonse~llted. by the Moat Rev. Dr. LesBy,
Lord Archb'ishop of G-hd Em& attended by 9 tho b&op of Mu~ter, ip Nenagh
Catholio ohpro4 OQ SW*, JUW %th, 1866.
HISTORY OF LIMERICK. 633
scribed also to an address of the prelates which was issued in the same
month to the clergy and laity of Ireland, reiterating their former resolutions,
and further declaring, that during the captivity of the Pope, who
then lay a prisoner in the hands of Napoleon Buonaparte, they would
refuse and reprobate all briefs or pretended briefs, rules and rescripts,
bearing title as from his Holiness, and purporting to be declaratory of his
free", or of any abdication of the papal office, until His Holiness should
enjoy the full exercise of his liberty.
As a friend of education, and one of a family that had afforded so many
brilliant members to the Church, Dr. Young, about the year 1805, conceived
the design of erecting a college in which students destined for the sacrcd
ministry shouldbe educated.' There had been, at Peter's Cell, a small col-
Iege some time before, but it was too contracted for the increasing requirements
of the diocese, and Park College, near Park House, the bishop's residence,
was at length erected, to the building of which the Catholic citizens of
Limerick contributed cheerfully and liberally. The Grst president of Park
College was Dr. Young, and his lordship was succeeded in tlie presidency by
the Very Rev. Dean Hanrahan, a learned and accomplished dignitary. The
Right Rev. Dr. Milner, the vicar-apostolic of the midlaxd district of England,
in the course of his tour through Ireland, visited Limerick in ISOS,
and was hospitably received by Dr. Young, who, to gratify the antiquarian
zeal of the learned and gifted historian of Winchester Cathedral, and the
indefatigable and chivalrous defender of the faith in various important publications,
obtained a clever artista to make a drawing of the mitre and crozier
of Cornelius O'Dca, which Dr. Young presented to Dr. Milner, and which
Dr. Milner got engraved afterwards for the Archzeological Society of London,
with a letter-press description, as already stated. It is impossible to
estimate the &mount of good which the apostolic Dr. Young performed in
his time. His name to this day is held in veneration by the people.
He was particularly fond also of encouraging local genius, especially
painters, and to that encouragement may be attributed the number of excellent
paintings which adorned the Catholic churches of Limerick, and
some of' which are yet in exi~tence.~ Succumbing at length to illness,
' The efforts made by the Irish hierarchy and priesthood were constant and snccessful for
education in ancient, as well as in more modem times.
Two colleges were erected for the native Irish, before Trinity College, Dublin, and founded at
Salamanca in 1682.
At the instance of Thomas White, native of Clonmel, one of these
At Alaaln in 1590, by do.
At Lisbon and Genoa, in 1595, by do.
At Douai, in 1596.
At Antwerp, in 1600.
At Tournay, 1607.
At Lille, 1610.
At LOUT 1616.
*-*- $' -$
At Rome 625, by Luke Wadding.
'.*L - d. --'q..7!>: ,
B Mr. John Gnbbins. U /
In Dr. Young's time, viz., in 1808, ~ r 0nen . ~adden, arespeotableparislr~mergf ~h&ona~* '
gate, presented Thomondgate chapel with a painting of the Ascension, by Henry Singleton,
A.R.A. for which Mr. Mdden nave fiftv mineas. It was a beautiful picture. but it has been
greatliinjured by injudicious aeaning I &d about tlie same time Fredirick ~ k iPlowman, a
a clever portrait painter, and student of the R. A. in Sir Joshua Reynolds' time, visited
Limerick, and painted, among other subjects, the Virgin and Child, surrounded by Angels, for
Father DenL Hogan, O.S.F., and a Crucifixion for him also. These pictures are in the Franciaaan
chuwh, Henry Street. Plowman painted a first-ola~a portrait of Father Denis Hogan
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