From Hartry’s Synopsis, p278
I WILL set down what I have learned from trustworthy persons.
Robert Shiel was born in lveagh, Co.Down.
He asked for the habit of the holy Cistercian Order, and was admitted by the Patrick Barnwell,[1] Abbot, for his own monastery of Mellifont, and was professed under the name of Malachy.
His superior to entrusted to Malachy the care of souls within the jurisdiction of the monastery of St. Mary of Newry. This duty he discharged for 7 years with another monk, Br. Malachy O’Kea. When Br. Malachy died, a secular priest, was joined with him.
About that time the Scots,[2] united with the English in armed bodies, almost depopulated Ulster and advanced to Newry, where the ruins of the monastery[3] are still to be seen.
F. Malachy laboured the whole day with his fellow priest to encourage the Governor for the defence of the place and especially of the very strong castle on behalf of the Catholics. The enemy suddenly got possession of the town gate.
Fr. Malachy and the priest entered the castle, urging the captain and the soldiers to defend the stronghold for the sake of the church of their fathers and the honour of Ireland.
Fear, dread, etc seized the captain, and he betrayed the castle, although strong and well manned. It's said he was promised quarter for himself, his soldiers, and the priests. But as soon as the enemy took possession, they seized both priests, and that very night they were condemned to death.
On the following day, the feast of the Finding of the Cross,[4] 1642, Fr. Malachy was hanged naked from the beams of a wooden bridge. The soldiers fired two shots at him while he was half-dead. The secular priest was hanged.
Their bodies were thrown into the river.
Soon after they were found on the bank and buried by the Catholics in clean winding-shee.
But the same night the soldiers stripped the bodies, leaving them naked above ground. Afterwards they were buried in the cemetery of the monastery.
It is worth remarking that when Br. Malachy was being led to his execution, he burst into a laugh and when asked why, he replied ‘I rejoice at the things that were said to me : we shall go into the house of the Lord!’ With joy in his heart, he received the prize of martyrdom.
O’Mellan says Rory O’Shiel, a monk of the Order of St. Bernard, and a priest, was executed, and thrown from the bridge of Newry into the sea.[5]
A letter[6] of Monroe, May 15th, 1642, to Leslie says 'We entered into examination of the townsmen if all were papists and the indifferent being severed from the bad, whereof sixty with two priests were shot and hanged.’[7]
Colonel Henry O’Neill in his Relation ‘Newry was surrendered upon the first summons by a fresh-water Governor upon mercy, which proved so merciless that a great many of the clergy and laity were hanged, killed, and drowned about the bridge of the town.’[8]
[1] See an account of him in Thumphalia, p. 283
[2] Monroe came to Ireland in April, 1642. Leslie came in the following August. The Scotch troops in Ulster amounted then to 10000 men.
[3] Founded about 1150 by Maurice Macloughlin, King of Ireland. See Triumphalia, Introd. Xiv. There is no trace of it remaining.
[4] May 4th
[5] Irish MS., in the library of the RI. Academy, 23. H.7
[6] Aphor. Disc., iii. 196
[7] Appendix to Aphor. Disc., i. 421
[8] Ibid., iii. 127
Please pray for final perseverance for all of us!
May the martyrs of old inspire us all.
