The Irish in Rome

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 23, 4 June 1903, Page 15

The Irish in Rome

nothing to arrest the attention of the Irish visitor. They are placed horizontally, and form portion of tho pavement, so that they are easily overlooked.'

There appear* in a recent issue of the ' Irish Ecclesiastical Record ' an interesting article from the pen of a scholarly Irishman and priest, the Rev. 1). T. M'Crea, M.lt 1. A., who discusses learnedly, and with the unique advantage that comes of long residence and intimate acquaintanceship, the many hallowed associations and hoary institutions connecting Irish life and history with the Eternal City. The article is, indeed, a "valuable contribution to a Subject that has been frequently dealt with in a discursne way. If, says tho writer, ' the Irish are to be found so universally in the world, whether by tendency or necessity, we are not to bo suiprised to find them in Rome, to which they are bound by a thousand ties It has been calculated that Ireland is represented in no fewer than

Fifty Ecclesiastical Institutions of tho city, and not only in the Church, but the medical, literary, and social departments are fully and adequately represented ; and so I might go on grade by grade, to find an Irish cabman in the streets of Rome.' After dealing at some length with the Irish College and its foundation, there is an interesting reference to the lush Franciscans and the Rev. Luke Wadding, the friend of the Confederated Catholics, together with a notice of Father Hugh MacCaghwell. Father Colgan, and otheis Father Wadding was born at Waterford, 1588, and died in IGSB. Ho was the author of many learned and interesting works. 'His bones have been transferred fi om the church and placed in a little oratory by themsehes, in a car\ed wooden sarcophagus, and are regarded with lx^erence by the community. Father MacCaghwell was born at Saul, County Down, in 1572. He belonged to the Scottish School of Theology. He wrote several theological works, and was appointed to the See of Armagh by Urban VIII on the feast of St. Patrick, March, 1626. He was consecrated in Rome, 7th June of the same year, but died of fe\er shortly afterwards, nnd never reached Ireland. The name of Father John Colgan must not be omitted, who was also associated with St Isidore's. Father Colgan was born at Carnuonagh, in Inishowen, Count-" Donegal, in 1592. Ho was the author of sevei al works, including the ' Acta SS Tlib .'" published in Louvain, in 16.V1, and the " Trias Thaumaturga," in 1647 His death occurred at Louvain m 1658. Tho present guai dian of St Isidoie's is Father Patrick Cahill, and the Vicar the Rev. Francis Walsh The church contains rohes of great national and historical importance, which the good Fathers are alwa\s pleased to exhibit to their visitors. Amongst these are The Sword of Hugh O'Neill and a beautiful original portrait of his son, the Baron of liun^annon, who died on the 21th September, 1609, while >et in his 21th year Hugh himself sleeps in the company of the Tyrconncl Princes in the Church of San Pietio in Montorio. Father McCtoa says : ' The church, which is now in the hainN of the Spanish Franciscans, is on the Vatican side of the Tiber, near the .gigant ic monument of Garibaldi, and overlooking the entire city The tombs are side by side, half way up the nave of the church, and except the arms of the O'Neills and O'Donnells, with the lengthened inscriptions in Latin, there is