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The Relics of St Oliver Plunkett in Kingscourt

Council 112

5 July 2026

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Five Knights of St Columbanus in blue and gold regalia standing either side of the altar in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kingscourt, with the golden reliquary of St Oliver Plunkett between them and a framed portrait of the saint below it.

Members of CK112 with the relic at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 5 July 2026.

Over the weekend of 5 July 2026, members of CK112 brought a relic of St Oliver Plunkett to the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Kingscourt, County Cavan. The visit was timed to fall just after his feast, which is kept on the first of July.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kingscourt: a grey stone Gothic Revival church with a tall spire, seen from the road under a deep blue sky, with a lamp post in the foreground.
The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kingscourt.

A Meath man

Oliver Plunkett was born at Loughcrew, County Meath, on 1 November 1625. He became Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the senior office in the Irish Church and a dangerous one to hold.

A portrait in pastel of St Oliver Plunkett: a lean man with long dark hair and a moustache, in rich vestments, holding a crucifix.
St Oliver Plunkett, in a portrait by Edward Luttrell.

In June 1681 he was convicted of high treason in London for promoting the Catholic faith, on evidence nobody has defended since. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on the first of July, aged fifty-five, the last Catholic martyr to die in England. His feast is kept on the day he died.

He was beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1920 and canonised by Pope Paul VI on 12 October 1975.

Where he rests

His head has been at St Peter's in Drogheda since 1921, and most of the rest of him lies at Downside Abbey in England. What came to Kingscourt was a first-class relic: a fragment of bone in a small golden reliquary, light enough to be carried by hand.

The nave of St Peter's Church, Drogheda, looking towards the altar: rows of wooden pews under painted arches, a carved wooden roof and stained glass windows.
St Peter's Church, Drogheda, where his head has rested since 1921.

The weekend

The relic was present at the parish Masses across the weekend. Brothers of the Order accompanied it in procession with the parish's altar servers, and stood with it at the altar.

The parish afterwards set down its own intention for the visit: that through the intercession of St Oliver Plunkett, all hatred and bitterness might be banished from our hearts, and peace given in their place.

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons: the church at Kingscourt by Olliebailie, CC BY-SA 4.0; St Peter's Church by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. The portrait by Edward Luttrell is in the public domain.

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