The Irish standard., 1902-07-05
LORD DUNBoYNE.
Received Back into the Catholic Church
by Father GahaB.

Dy Fatnef GaAaH.
Father William Gahan, who was
born in 1892 is known to few. But in
the history of the Catholic church in
Ireland he shone in a prominent light,
not only on account of the perform
ance of his duties, but in celebrated
case wherein he refused to testify be-
fore an English court the secrets of
the confessional.
The occasion was the death of Lord
Dunboyne, who had renounced the
episcopate and apostatised from the
faith to gain possession of the family
estate, OF which the atrocious Penal
Laws would otherwise deprive him as
a Catholic. On his death-bed he re-
pented Of his sin, and begged the
Archbishop of Dublin to reconcile him
with the church.
This duty was entrusted to Father
Gahan, who went to Dunboyne Castle
and prepared the soul of the dying
man to meet it's Maker. Lord Dun
boyne, ut the same time, thought prop
er, contrary to the remonstrances of
the archbishop, to bequeath one of
his estates lin County Meath) to May
nooth College, After his death the
heir-at-law instituted legal proceed
ings to break the will on the ground
that "a person relapsing into Popery
from Professionalism was incapacitated
of making will of landed property"
! Now, the principal aim of the plain
tiff was to prove that Lord Dunboyne
had really ''relapsed into Popery"
This could be done only by DR.. Ga
hams testimony, as he alone had at
tended the dying man. The case was
called up, and Dr. Gahan directed to
answer all questions which might be
put to him. But this he refused to do
on conscientious grounds, as some of
them might require him to declare
what he was bound in conscience not
to utter.
When pressed to declare eff he knew
did Lord Dunboyne die in the COM
munion of the Roman Catholic
church,, he said that "abstracting
from his situation as clergyman, he
did not know; that if in his clerical
capacity he knew anything of the
matter, he was not at liberty to dis
close knowledge so received in con-
fidence; that such breach of sa-
cerdOtal trust would be highly crimi-
nal in the sight of God and men, etc.;
and that he would rather lay down
his head on block and forfeit his
life like Eleazar of old than to do
what appeared to him to be dishonor-
able, irreligious immoral, and scandal
GUS in the extreme" For this DIR. Ga
han was judged guilty of contempt of
court, and sentenced to one weeks i'm
prisonment in the Jail at Trim. But
the Christian priest had triumphed in
his defeat, while English law gained
but barren victory.
The Very Rev. William Gahan was
born in Dublin ON June 5, 1882. On
September IS, 1749, he Joined the
Order Of Hermits of st. Augustine in
Dublin, and the year after was sent
to Louvain to complete his ecclesiasti-
cal studies. Here he was ordained on
May 25, 1855, and soon after returned
to the land of his birth.
He was given charge of the parish OF
st. Paul. Dublin, and here, in the
midst of his flock, did DR.. Gahan now
toll. He daily offered at an early hour
the Mass; "he preached in season and
out of season.; he was never absent
from the confessional as long as there
was one repentant sinner to be recon-
ciled, or one practical Catholic to be
confirmed in virtue. On December 6.
1904, DR.. Gahan, now in the seventy
fourth year of his age, yielded up his
soul to his Creator. For forty-nine
years he had discharged with ex
emplary piety the great and awful
duties Of the priesthood.