William Ireland

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For the 18th Century forger, see William Henry Ireland.

Venerable William Ireland (1636-Jan. 24, 1679) was an English Jesuit and martyr from Lincolnshire. He was executed during the reign of King Charles II for participating in the "Popish Plot" against the king.

Ireland was the eldest son of William Ireland of Crofton Hall, Yorkshire, by Barbara, a daughter of Ralph Eure of Washingborough, Lincolnshire, by his first wife. Ireland was educated at the English College, St. Omer; admitted to the Society of Jesus at Watten, 1655; professed, 1673; and was for several years confessor to the Poor Clares at Gravelines.^[1]

In 1677, Ireland was sent on the English Mission and appointed procurator of the province. On the night of September 28, 1678, he was arrested by Titus Oates in person. Among the others who shared his fate as John Grove, a layman and the nominal occupier of that part of Wild House, London, occupied by the Jesuits and the Spanish ambassador.

After confinement in Newgate they were both sentenced to death on December 17. Together with Thomas Pickering, they were said to have planned, in the rooms of the Jesuit William Harcourt, to assassinate the king on August 19. Oates and Bedloe swore that Grove was to have £1500 for the job and Pickering 30,000 Masses. Ireland wrote a journal in Newgate, which accounted for every day of his absence from London between August 3 and September 14, but a woman swore that she saw him in Fetter Lane on August 20. All three men were found guilty, and after two reprieves Ireland and Grove were executed together at Tyburn, Grove saying: "We are innocent, we lose our lives wrongfully, we pray God to forgive them that are the causes of it."