Malachias O'Queely
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Malachias O'Queely (Malachy O'Quechly, Maolsheachlainn O Cadhla) (b. in Thomond, date unknown; d. at Ballipodare, 27 October 1645 (N.S.)) was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, Ireland.
He studied in Paris at the College of Navarre. Having administered Killaloe as vicar Apostolic, he was consecrated Archbishop of Tuam at Galway, 11 October, 1631.
He held a provincial synod at Galway in 1632 to promulgate the Tridentine decrees and correct abuses, and his labours in Tuam provoked a complaint from the Protestant archbishop of Tuam in 1641. Dr. O'Queely attended the national synod of 1643, by which the Catholic Confederation was organized, and at the first meeting of the General Assembly he was elected to the Supreme Council, being afterwards appointed President of Connaught.
He undertook to recover Sligo from the Scottish Covenanters in 1645, but the Scots surprised his camp at Ballysodare, 17-27 October, 1645. Everyone abandoned him but his secretary, Father Thaddeus O'Connell, and another priest. The archbishop was cut down with his companions, and the victors discovered in his carriage a draft of the secret treaty between Charles I of England and the Confederates, which the English Parliament published to prejudice both parties.
His body was redeemed for £30 and buried at Tuam. He wrote an account of the Aran Islands, printed in Colgan's Acta Sanctorum.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
- Meehan, Irish Hierarchy in the 17th Century (16th edit., Dublin, about 1888)
- Murphy, Our Martyrs (Dublin, 1896)
