MEATH
97
MEATH
New York, ■where his countrymen gave him a hearty
welcome. His popularity as a lecturer was immediate ;
he also studied law and, admitted to the bar in 1855,
started a paper callfcl the "Irish News" (12 April,
1856), in which ln' juililishcd his "Personal Recollec-
tions". Two yi':irs l.ilor he undertook an exploring
expedition in tVmial America; his narrative was
printed in " Harper's Magazine". When the Civil War
broke out he espoused the cau.se of the Union, raised
a company of Zouaves, went to the front with the
Sixty-Ninth New York Volunteers, and participated
in the first battle of Bull Run. Ho then organized
the famous Irish Brigade, of which he was commis-
sioned brigadier-general, and with it participated in
the operations of the .\rmy of the Potomac, in which
it specially distinguished itself in the battles of Fair
Oak (1 June, 1S62), the seven days' fight licfore Rich-
mond, Antietam, Fredericksburg (lli Dec, 1S62),
where it was almost annihilated, and Chancellorsville
(1S63). He then resigned his command because, he
said, " it was perpetrating a public deception to keep
up a brigade so reduced in numbers, and which he
had been refused permission to withdraw from service
and recruit ". A command of a military district in
Tennessee was at once given him, which he resigned
after a short time. At the close of the war he was
made (July, 1N65) Territorial Secretary of Montana.
During a trip made in the course of his administra-
tion of this office he fell from a steamer into the
Missouri River at night and was drowned. His body
was never found.
Cavanagh, Memorial of Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher (Wor- cester, Mass., 1892); Conyngham, The Irish Brigade and lis Campaigns (New York, 1S67); Savage, '9S and ' J,S (New York, 1856); Duffy, Young Ireland (Jjondon. \9Sm; Four Years of Irish History (London, 1883); McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, II (New York, 1887); Irish American (New York), files.
Thomas F. Meeh.^n.
Meath, Diocese of (Midensis), in Ireland, suffra- gan of Armagh. In extent it is the largest diocesr in Ireland, and includes the greater part of the coun- ties Meath, Westmeath, King's, and a small portion of the counties Longford, Duljlin, and Cavan. The pres- ent Diocese of Meath anciently comprised eight epis- copal sees, the chief of which was Clonard, founded in the middle of the sixth century by St. Finian, " Tutor of the Saints of Erin". At the national Synod of Kells, in 1 172, over which Cardinal Paparo presided as legate of Eugene III, it was decided that these sees be joined together. The united see was a.ssigned as first suffragan to Armagh, and ranks immediately after the metropolitan sees in Ireland. In his "Hi- bernia.Dominicana" De Burgo says that Meath is the foremost suffragan of Armagh, and has precedence even though its bishop be the youngest of the Irish prel- ates in order of consecration. Meath being the coun- try of the Pale, many Englishmen were appointed bishops of Meath, among them the notorious Staples who apostatized in the reign of Edward VI, and was deposed in 155-1. Dr. Walsh, a Cistercian monk, suc- ceeded, and more than repaired the scandal caused by his recreant predecessor. This noble confessor of the Faith bravely withstood all (he threats and blandish- ments of (Juecn Elizabelli and her agents. He spent thirteen years in a dungeon in Dublin Castle, and finally died an exile at Alcahl in Spain. His name is reckoned in more than one Irish Martyrology. Like honour is paid to him by his own order, and his Cis- tercian biographer contends that the martyr's crown is his as truly as if he had died in torments. The succession of bishops in the See of Meath has been continued without interruption to the present day, except during a few brief interregnums in the penal days. It is a noteworthy fact that, omitting Dr. Logan's short reign of a few years, but three bishops ruled the Diocese of Meath from 1779 to 1899, Drs. Plunket, Cantwell, and Nulty. Dr. Phinket, who had been professor and superior in the Irish College of the X.— 7
Lombards, Paris, was consecrated bishop by the papal
nuncio at Paris in 1779. The vessel in which he re-
turned to Ireland was attacked and plundered by the
famous Paul Jones, the American privateer, who, how-
ever, to his credit be it said, afterwards restored the
episcopal property. For eight and forty years, with
a truly Apostolic spirit, this great bishop traversed the
whole diocese yearly, visiting every parish, preaching,
catecliizing, giving seasonable counsel to the clergy
and suitable instruction to the people, so that in liis de-
clining years he was fittingly called, l)y the Primate
of Armagh, "the ornament and father of the Irish
Church". The catechism compiled by Dr. Plunket
cannot easily be improved, and is still used in the
schools of the diocese. He died in January, 1827,
in his eighty-ninth year. His successor. Dr. Logan,
lived only a few years, and was succeeded by Dr. Cant-
well, the steadfast friend of Daniel O'Connell. With
great energy Dr. Cantwell gathered the scattered
stones of the sanctuary, and re-erected the temples
levelled in the penal days. Dr. Nulty became bishop
in lS(j4, and during liis episcopate of thirty-four years
spent himself in the service of God and his people. A
CATHEDRAL, Mui-LINaA
profound llicologian and ardent student, he put be-
fore his priests a high intellectual standard ; at the
same time he did much to overthrow landlordism
and to root the people firmly in their native soil.
The jjopulation of the Diocese of Meath at the last census (1901) was 143,164, of whom 132,892 were Catholics. Since 1871 the population of the diocese has decreased 27 per cent.; during the same period the non-Catholic population decreased 35 per cent. There are 144 churches and 66 parishes, 155 secular priests and 12 regulars, 3 monastic houses of men with 17 members, and 13 convents of nuns with 134 members. St. Finian's College, an imposing structure erected in Mullingar and opened in 1908, re- places the old Imilding in Navan, which had held, for more than one hundred years, an honoured place among the nohools of Ireland. The new college, which cost over £40,000, has accommodation for 150 students and is intended both as a seminary to pre- pare priests for the diocese, and to impart a sound Catholic Uberal education to those intended for worldly pursuits. There is a Jesuit novitiate and college at TuUamore, and a hou.se of Carmelite Fathers at Moate. The Franciscans of the Irish province have a monastery and preparatory school at Multyfarnham, near the cathedral town of Mullingar. The Abbey of Multy- farnham has been in Franciscan hands since pre- Reformation times, and has witnessed the good and evil fortunes of the friars in Ireland. The Franciscan Brothers have a school at Clara, and the Christian Brothers have a school at Mullingar (500 pupils) and at Clara (200 pupils) . At Rochfortbridge, St. .Joseph's Institute for the Deaf and Dumb is conducted by the Sisters of Mercy. The Loreto Nuns have educational houses in Navan and MulUngar, which have won
