Remembering Bishop Heber MacMahon of Clogher diocese executed in Enniskillen on 17 September 1650- by JoeMcVeigh

Bishop Heber (Eimhear/Ever) MacMahon was the bishop of the Diocese of Clogher for seven years from 1643 to 1650. MacMahon was a bishop in this tense time in Ireland during which the Catholic Church hierarchy- the native Irish Catholic families and some of the old English families were under threat and suspicion. 

 

These Catholic families –natives and Old English – joined forces to form a parliament in Kilkenny – known as the Confederate parliament. They aimed to rule Ireland independently of England. They formed an army to protect and defend themselves against the new English armies that were formed to carry out the confiscation of land and destroy where possible the Catholic infrastructure. The chief aims of the Confederacy were to recover their confiscated lands and protect the Catholic faith against the threat from the Protestant reformation. 

Their aim was to continue the struggle to obtain freedom for Catholics to practice their faith and the recovery of their lands seized by the British after the Flight of the Earls in 1607. However, the Irish forces were severely handicapped by an internal division between the “Old English” Catholics who wanted religious freedom and loyalty to the King and the “Gaelic Irish” who wanted full land restoration and political autonomy.

 

An army of Scottish and English soldiers had arrived in large numbers in Ireland after the 1641 Rising by the native Irish chieftains. These soldiers were sent to protect the Planter families and the land that had been confiscated -which once belonged to native Irish families.

 

In 1649 after the death of Owen Roe O’Neill in Cavan, Bishop MacMahon was appointed by the other Catholic Irish leaders to lead the Catholic Confederate army against the English and Scottish forces of Oliver Cromwell. In that same year Cromwell had executed the English king Charles I and declared England a republic which lasted for the next 12 years. Cromwell was already on his way to Ireland to destroy the Irish resistance. Oliver Cromwell arrived on the political scene in 1649 and was determined to wipe out the Catholic resistance for once and for all. His exploits and murderous actions in Drogheda, Waterford and elsewhere are well known.

 

Bishop Mac Mahon who clearly was not a military leader and had little experience of soldiering led the reorganised Irish army to counties Derry and Donegal. They had several victorious battles against the English/Scots.  However, in the vicinity of Letterkenny at a place known as Scariffhollis (Scarbh Sholúis), the Irish Confederate army met with a smaller but better equipped English-Scots force and were annihilated. Many were killed. Bishop Heber MacMahon escaped after the battle but was captured in the Trillick area of county Tyrone. It is believed that the English authorities were informed by a local informant. 

 

The bishop was taken to Enniskillen gaol. He was charged with Treason and held there for a number of months. He was then taken out and executed by the English forces at the Sconce in the Broadmeadow in Enniskillen on 17^th September 1650 on direct orders from Captain Coote, who was the leader of the Parliamentarian English/Scottish army. Coote belonged to a well-known Planter family. Bishop MacMahon’s head was spiked on the tower of Enniskillen Castle and remained there for several months. A local military leader, Major King tried to save the bishop’s life but to no avail.

Time to Remember

It is time to remember this Church leader of the oppressed people in Ireland. He made the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle for Religious freedom, the recovery of lands confiscated by the English colonisers and a return to a Gaelic way of life. It will soon be 380 years since Bishop Heber MacMahon was executed in Enniskillen. He made the ultimate sacrifice because of his deep concern for the future of the church in Ireland and out of love for his own people. Greater Love than this no man has than to lay down his life for his brothers and sisters.

 

(There is a GAA club in Brookeboro, County Fermanagh called the Heber MacMahons. There is a street in Letterkenny named after the bishop called Mac Mahon Terrace.)

 

There will be a Memorial service in the vicinity of the Broadmeadow on 17 September to mark the anniversary of the death of Bishop MacMahon.