Image source October 31st: Blessed Dominic Collins, SJ – The Jesuits
Online source:
Print sources: The Last Chieftain of Gaelic Ireland by Pól Uí Súileabháin
This is a story that unfolds, beholds, and must be told!
Dominic Collins was born into an illustrious Catholic family in Youghal, East Cork in 1566. His father and his brother were mayors of the town. His family were the owners of the townland called Labranche. Dominic was brought up piously in the Catholic faith. When he reached manhood, at twenty two years of age, he sailed to France, enlisting in the army of the Duke of Mercoeur. He longed to fight for the Catholic League against the Huguenots in Brittany. He served for five years with distinction and rose through the ranks. His outstanding achievement was the capturing of a strategic castle at Lapena. From this success he was appointed military governor of Lapena.
Dominic proved to be an honest and brave governor. Later when Henry IV of France tried to bribe him with 2,000 ducats to hand back the castle, it was to no avail. Dominic strategically handed the castle to a the Spanish general, Don Juan del Aguila, a loyal supporter of Philip II, Catholic King of Spain. For this Dominc Collins earned a pension, and a trip to Spain to serve the Spanish King.
King Philip II had placed Dominic in the garrison at La Coruña in Galicia near Santiago de Compostella. The Irishman became captain of the marines and served eight years. Although it was a time of peace, he found himself battling a spiritual battle. At La Coruña in 1598, Dominic encountered a Irish Jesuit priest by the name of Thomas White.
Vocation
Father White had come to Spain from Clonmel, founding the Irish College at Salamanca for the formation of Irish priests. He was now the chaplain of the Irish seminary in Spain. Fr. White wrote of his encounter with Dominic, and it is paraphrased like this:
”Dominic was struggling to find satisfaction, peace and joy as a captain of the marines, and felt God calling him to renounce the world and its vanities. He particularly felt called to the Jesuit order of priests”.
Dominic was a late vocationer, and this would make the transition from a comfortable military life to an ascetic religious life rather difficult. He would have to prove himself, and so he did. He joined on December the 8th as a novice in 1598 in Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. The novice house at Santiago was struck by a plague. Many members fled for fear of catching a disease. Collins bravely stayed, tending to the sick for two months. A report sent to Rome by his superiors describe the Irishman as man of sound judgment and great physical strength, mature, prudent and sociable. He was also hot-headed and stubborn.
Collins encounters the English foe in 1601
At this point Dominic’s story takes a twist. We need to bear in mind the context to more fully appreciate what happens next… The context of Dominic’s Kinsale visit was this… There was an established divide and conquer strategy of Ireland by the English. An Irish chief by the name of Donal O’Sullivan Beare understood their strategy, and was holding his clan forth at Dunboy Castle in Cork. Meanwhile two Chieftains, Hugh O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell headed to Kinsale in Cork to confront the English army. At the same time, in 1601 King Philip III of Spain sent a Spanish envoy to help the Irish patriots. The Irish Jesuit, Brother Collins sailed with this Spanish envoy. Collins’s ship finally reached Ireland on 1st December 1601 at Castlehaven, not far from Kinsale and not far from Dunboy Castle.
Lord Mountjoy and his English army laid siege to Kinsale. O’Neill, O’Donnell and O’Sullivan Beare, converged on Kinsale. Brother Dominic along with the Spanish soldiers joined with O’Sullivan Beare. But a rash Irish attack at dawn on Christmas Eve, by O’Neill and O’Donnell failed badly, due to a hasty strategy, resulting in a big disadvantage for the Irish army. After a long march during the night the Irish army were lost and disjointed. The English found them stumbling by in confusion. O’Donnell and O’Neill suffered a humiliating defeat, with no possible help from the Spaniards who where stationed elsewhere.
O’Neill and O’Donnell’s armies retreated back to Ulster while O’Sullivan Beare and his army remained at Dunboy Castle on the Beara peninsula. Dominic Collins accompanied O’Sullivan to the safety of Dunboy Castle, overlooking Beare Island. Dunboy castle was the fort that O’Sullivan decided to make a last stand against the foreign invaders of Lord Mountjoy and Sir George Carew, the so called ‘’president of Munster’’. At Dunboy Castle Dominic encountered Fr. Archer, an Irish Jesuit priest, who also had set out from Spain and had then escaped Kinsale.
O’Sullivan’s strategy was effective against the English army, as George Carew struggled to get a foothold in that region. The Irish army were expecting more assistance from Spain. After six months the English army decided to make a landing by sea. On 6th June 1602 Carew with 4,000 English troops made an unexpected landing on a sandy beach from Beare island, just below the castle. It was an unusual calm day by the sea, and it favoured the English. By Carew’s testimony, O’Sullivan’s men put up a brave fight.
On 17th June Dunboy castle was under heavy attack by Carew and the English. Dominic Collins, knowing that Carew wanted to hold to ransom a Jesuit, offered a peace treaty settlement. But Carew was not an honourable Englishman and as soon as a deal was agreed, that it was already torn asunder; Dominic Collins was taking prisoner.
The English resumed heavy artillery attack on the remaining castle ruins and into the crypt. After a bitter siege, with heavy casualties, the castle was blown up as a desperate attempt to take out English leaders. The Irish lost and the O’Sullivan’s retreated to Glengarriff. Dominic Collins, Thomas Taylor, and Turlough Roe MacSwiney were taken for questioning. The rest were swiftly hanged, seventy men and all.
Interrogation
Taylor and MacSwiney were soon after executed. But Dominic Collins, was consider to be a promising prospect for apostacy. Carew felt if he could turn the Jesuit to renounce his Catholic and embrace the fight for the Queen of England, it would be their resounding victory. Dominic was savagely tortured by Carew. He was also promised rich rewards and high ecclesiastical office by Lord Mountjoy for renouncing the Catholic faith. Some family members visited him, to encourage him to save his life and fain a conversion. It was a psychological battle but Dominic Collins rejected all pressures and he happily accepted a martyr’s death.
Dominic was taken by Carew to his hometown of Youghal on 31st October 1602. The Irishman knelt at the foot of the gallows joyfully saying: “Hail, holy cross, so long desired by me!” He then preached to the crowd, urging them to remain faithful to the Holy Roman Church.
Dominic Collins was then left hanging for many hours, the rope eventually snapped and his body collapsed to the ground. As night fell, local Catholics took his remains and buried him reverently in a secret place. Dominc’s Collin has since been venerated as a martyr in Youghal. Many favours and cures were attributed to his intercession. He is remembered on 31st October in the church liturgical calendar for the Cloyne diocese.
Brother Dominic Collins, together with sixteen other Irish martyrs of Ireland, was beatified by Saint John Paul II on 27th September 1992.
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