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Saint Oliver Plunkett ( 1 November 1625 - 1 July 1681 ) is an Irish Saint . He was Archbishop Of Armagh and Primate Of All Ireland Oliver Plunkett was born in Loughcrew , County Meath , Ireland , in 1629 from well-to-do parents related to families recently ennobled, such as the Earls of Roscommon and Fingall, as well as Lords Louth and Dunsany. Till his sixteenth year, the boy's education was entrusted to Patrick Plunket, Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, and brother of the first Earl of Fingall who later became bishop, successively, of Ardagh and Meath. As an aspirant to the priesthood, set out for Rome in 1645, under the care of Father Pierfrancesco Scarampi , of the Roman Oratory. He was admitted to the Irish College in Rome in 1646 and there proved an able pupil. He was ordained a priest in 1654 , and deputed by the Irish bishops to act as their representative in Rome. Throughout the period of the Commonwealth and the first years of Charles II's reign he successfully pleaded the cause of the Irish Church, serving also as theological professor at the College of Propaganda Fide. The Congregation of Propaganda Fide on July 9 , 1669 , was appointed to the Archbishop of Armagh, the Irish primatial see, and was consecrated on November 30 at Ghent , by the Bishop of Ghent, assisted by the Bishop of Ferns and another bishop. The Pallium was granted him in the Consistory of July 28 , 1670 . After arriving back in Ireland he set about reorganising the ravaged Church, and built schools both for the young and for clergy whom he found 'ignorant in moral theology and controversies'. He tackled drunkenness among the clergy, writing 'Let us remove this defect from an Irish priest, and he will be a saint'. The Penal Laws had been somewhat relaxed and he was able to establish a Jesuit College in Drogheda in 1670 . A year later 150 students attended the College. With the onset of new persecution in 1673 and the college being levelled to the ground, Plunkett went into hiding travelling only in disguise, refusing a government edict to register at a seaport and await passage into exile. In 1678 , the so-called Popish Plot concocted in England by Titus Oates led to further anti-Catholicism. Archbishop Peter Talbot of Dublin was arrested, and Plunkett again went into hiding. The Privy Council in London was told he had plotted a French invasion. Despite being on the run and a price on his head he refused to leave his flock. He was arrested in Dublin in December 1679 and imprisoned in Dublin Castle , where he gave absolution to the dying Talbot. At some point before his final Incarceration , he took refuge in a church that once stood in the townland of Killartry in County Louth, in the parish of Clogherhead , seven miles outside of Drogheda. He was tried at Dundalk for conspiring against the state by plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country, and for levying a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion. Lord Shaftesbury knew that Oliver would never be convicted in Ireland, and had him moved to Newgate Prison , London . The first grand jury found no true bill, but he was not released. The second trial was a Kangaroo Court ; Lord Campbell , writing of the judge, Sir Francis Pemberton , called it a disgrace to himself and his country. Plunkett was found guilty of high treason on June, 1681 "for promoting the Catholic faith," and was condemned to a gruesome death. On July 1 1681 , Plunkett became the last Catholic Martyr to die in England when he was Hanged, Drawn And Quartered at Tyburn - the last Catholic to die for his faith at Tyburn. His body was initially buried in two tin boxes next to five Jesuits who had died before in the courtyard of St Giles. The remains were exhumed in 1683 and moved to the Benedictine monastery at Lamspringe , near Hildesheim in Germany . The head was brought to Rome , and from there to Armagh and eventually to Drogheda where, since June 29 1921 it has rested in Saint Peter's Church . The body was brought from Lamspringe to Downside Abbey , England, where the major part is located today, some relics being brought to Ireland in May 1975 , while others are in England, France , Germany , the United States , and Australia . Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years, and the first of the Irish martyrs to be beatified. Nevertheless, his ministry during its time was most successful and he confirmed over 48,000 people over a four year period. Since 1997 he is the patron saint, adopted by the prayer group, campaigning for peace in Ireland, namely, 'St. Oliver Plunkett for Peace and Reconciliation'. TIMELINE OF EVENTS
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