Blessed William Tirry, Augustinian Priest and Martyr of Clonmel

Who was Blessed William Tirry?

Blessed William Tirry was an Irish Augustinian friar who kept bringing the sacraments to his people after Oliver Cromwell's government made it a capital crime to be a Catholic priest in Ireland. He was arrested on Holy Saturday 1654, tried at Clonmel and hanged there on May 12, 1654. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1992 with sixteen other Irish martyrs.

Many people search for him as "St. William Tirry." The Church has declared him Blessed; he has not been canonized.

The life of William Tirry

A Cork family

He was born in Cork in 1608 into one of the city's leading families. His uncle and namesake, William Tirry, was Bishop of Cork. An old Augustinian account, which Fr. Denis Murphy translated in his Our Martyrs (1896), says that even as a boy he "preferred to pass his time in prayer in the churches," and that he turned his back on the rank his family held to "hide the nobility of his birth" among the Hermits of St. Augustine.

He entered the Order at eighteen and was sent abroad for his studies, to Valladolid in Spain, to Paris and to Brussels. He came home with a name for learning and virtue. His uncle the bishop made him his adviser, and Viscount Sarsfield entrusted him with the education of his two sons.

Priest in hiding

Cromwell landed in Ireland in August 1649. In the years that followed, priests were outlawed, hunted for bounty, hanged or shipped abroad. Fr. Tirry stayed. Murphy's account says that for three years he lived hidden, "leaving his cell only to administer the sacraments."

He was betrayed on Holy Saturday 1654 while he was preparing to celebrate the Easter Vigil, and was taken to the jail at Clonmel. Later accounts place his hiding place and arrest at Fethard, in County Tipperary.

Prison and trial at Clonmel

In prison he kept saying the Divine Office every day. His companion, a fellow Augustinian named Walter, was able at times to bring him the Holy Eucharist. The charge, as the Augustinian Order puts it today, was simply "being a priest in Ireland." He was offered his freedom if he would renounce the Catholic faith. He refused, and a court under military pressure found him guilty of treason.

The martyrdom of William Tirry

He spent the whole night before his death in prayer, "to strengthen himself," he said, "for the fight." At dawn he received Viaticum. When the soldiers burst into his cell, Murphy's source says, he greeted them "with joy as if they were his friends."

On May 12, 1654, he walked to the scaffold in his Augustinian habit, followed by a large crowd who grieved that an innocent man was to die. There he publicly forgave those who had betrayed him. He asked for absolution in case a priest was in the crowd, hoping that Fr. Dennis O'Driscoll was there. Then he spoke to the people about faith, about keeping the passions under control and about the practice of virtue, until the executioner cut him short. The old account says his words converted several Protestants who heard them.

His body was buried at the Augustinian friary in Fethard. The exact place of the grave is not known today.

Miracles of Blessed William Tirry

The Augustinian account that Murphy translated tells of two wonders. Both are reported miracles, recorded by his Order, not examined or approved by the Church:

• The crowd gathered up drops of his blood, and "a blind woman got back her sight by touching his habit."
• When his companion Walter was sailing to Belgium and a storm overtook the ship, he "calmed the sea by casting into it a small piece of the holy man's habit."

As a martyr, he was beatified without a miracle.

Beatification

On September 27, 1992, Pope John Paul II beatified seventeen Irish martyrs of the penal times, among them William Tirry. "Their victory lay precisely in going to death with no hatred in their hearts," the Pope said. "They lived and died for Love. Many of them publicly forgave all those who had contributed in any way to their martyrdom." Fr. Tirry was one of those.

Symbols of Blessed William Tirry in art

No portrait from his lifetime is known. Modern images show him with:

• The black habit and leather belt of the Augustinians, which he wore to his death.
• The martyr's palm.
• A rope, for the gallows at Clonmel.
• A book, for the learning his Order remembered.

Feast day and prayer

We keep the memory of Blessed William Tirry on May 12, the day the Augustinians celebrate him, and with the other Irish martyrs on June 20. You can find other saints of mid-May on our feast days page.

There is no traditional prayer to him. We can pray in the words John Paul II used: "Blessed Irish Martyrs, intercede for the beloved Irish people!" And let us ask Blessed William Tirry for the grace he showed on the scaffold, to forgive from the heart those who have wronged us.