Christopher P. McQuinn looks at the life, the family, and the legacy of a remarkable woman
Judith Clementina Wogan-Browne was born in 1756 (or c.1750), into the Wogan-Browne family of Castle Browne, County Kildare, later Clongowes Wood College.[1]
Family Background
When Judith’s father, Michael Browne married his first cousin, Catherine Wogan, from neighbouring Rathcoffey, two important Anglo-Norman families further cemented their close links. These families had, since the previous centuries, negotiated and tried to influence the ebb in their status and prospects that resulted from the Tudor religious break with Rome.
Their subsequent story took place against a backdrop of military conflict and political upheaval, up to and including, the Williamite Wars, the attempts to restore the Stuarts to the throne, and the introduction of the penal laws against the practice of the Catholic religion. Family members found themselves as important actors in these historic events.
Members of the Wogan-Browne family went on to forge illustrious military careers in various continental armies, and eventually, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in the service of the British crown.
Some family members were to play important roles in ecclesiastical affairs. The most notable of these was Judith Wogan-Browne. In her long life she exerted considerable influence over four Catholic bishops of Kildare and Leighlin, notably Bishop Daniel Delany. Following his founding of the Brigidine Congregation of sisters in Tullow, County Carlow, in 1807, Judith Browne was instrumental in the training needs, the administration, and the development of the Tullow and Mountrath convents, taking a more prominent role after Bishop Delany’s death in 1814. She was also involved in the setting up of the Presentation Convent in Clane, County Kildare in 1839.
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Last Resting Place of Judith Wogan-Browne in the Brigidine Convent Graveyard, Tullow, County Carlow. The monument was erected in 1879.
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HERE LIE the REMAINS OF JUDITH the only Surviving Sister of the WOGAN BROWNE Esquire of CASTLE BROWNE IN THE COUNTY KILDARE SHE departed THIS LIFE at the advanced age of 98 in the ODOR of SANCTITY on the 6th June 1848 |
Headstone Inscription
The Wogans of Rathcoffey
This Wogan family descends from Sir John Wogan, chief Governor of Ireland in 1295 and 1310. He presided over the first Norman Parliament of Ireland in 1297.[2]
The Wogan family was granted lands in Rathcoffey, County Kildare in 1317. Members of this family feature in various military and political exploits in the following centuries.
Captain Edward Wogan[3] (1620-1654)
Edward Wogan was born in Blackhall in County Kildare in 1620. Historians have not been able to establish the family connection between the Wogans of Rathcoffey and those of nearby Blackhall.[4] The castle at Blackhall no longer exists.
Edward Wogan, a Parliamentarian
Although a Catholic of the Pale[5], Edward appears in history in 1644 in the service of Cromwell’s Parliamentary army as a trooper in the English civil war[6]. Edward Wogan saw action in the battles of Cheriton and Newbury. He was appointed a captain in the New Model Army where he served all over the West Country.
Edward Wogan, a Royalist
Before the death in 1649 of King Charles I, Captain Wogan turned over to the Royalist side, which led to his being described by Cromwell as ‘a renegade and a traitor’. Following imprisonment in Cork Jail, Wogan persuaded the marshal of the jail to join him in escaping and becoming part of the Marquis of Ormond’s force in Limerick.
Colonel Wogan, as he was called at that time, is famed for successfully defending the fort at Duncannon, Co. Wexford against Cromwell during the Confederate Wars in 1649. This saved Waterford from occupation by Cromwellian forces.
Campaign in England
Following a period in the Stuart court in Paris, Wogan campaigned in England and Scotland. At that stage he is referred to as having again the rank of Captain. He fought with King Charles II in Worcester, afterwards escaping to France through Wales.
Wogan returned to England, through Dover and London, on a Royalist recruiting campaign in 1653. It was relatively successful. Setting out in November, he reached Durham after nine days, having marched 25 miles per day. In January 1654, Wogan joined up with a Scottish force.
During a successful skirmish, on 14 January 1654, with English troops from the Brazen Wall Regiment, Edward Wogan received a shoulder wound, from which he died on 15 February.
Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Waverley, gives a scene where Fergus Mac-Ivor, the Highland chieftain, meets with Edward Waverley, and where Mac-Ivor tries to win Waverley over to the Jacobite cause by giving him the example of Captain Wogan.
In a letter to Waverley, Mac-Ivor reproduces ten verses, composed by his sister Flora Mac-Ivor, who he infers has romantic feelings for Captain Wogan. Two of these verses, from ‘Lines on Captain Wogan’, are found below:
TO AN OAK TREE
In the Churchyard of ____, in the Highlands of Scotland, said to mark the Grave of Captain Wogan, killed in 1649.[7]
Thy death’s hour heard no kindred wail,
No holy knell thy requiem rang;
Thy mourners were the plaided Gael,
Thy dirge the clamorous pibroch sung,
Be thine the Tree whose dauntless boughs
Brave summer’s drought and winters gloom!
Rome bound with oak her patriot’s brows,
As Albyn shadows Wogan’s tomb.
Sir Charles Wogan (1698? – 1754)
Sir Charles Wogan was also known as Chevalier Wogan.[8] As previously stated, his family relationship to Edward Wogan has not been established.
Eamon O Ciardha in the Dictionary of Irish Biography states that Charles was born in 1698 in Rathcoffey,Co. Kildare, the second son of William Wogan and Anne Wogan (nee Gaydon). Seamus Cullen, citing Hugh A. Law, gives Charles Wogan’s birth year as 1685, and his birthplace as Richardstown Castle, Co. Kildare.[9]
At least three family connections have been postulated between Judith Wogan-Browne and Sir Charles.[10]
The correct family connection would appear to be that Nicholas Wogan of Rathcoffey, Judith’s grandfather, was either a second cousin, or first cousin, once removed, of Sir Charles.[11]
Charles Wogan was a Jacobite soldier, and was one of the ‘pivotal Irish emigres’ who came from the ranks of the Catholic aristocracy, the ‘underground gentry’, the Wild Geese and the Irish Brigades.[12]
Reputed Portrait of Sir Charles Wogan (Courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland)
Jacobite Campaign in England
In 1712, at a young age, Charles Wogan left Kildare for Windsor, and took part in the 1715 attempt to restore the Stuarts to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. He fought in Northumberland along with his brother, Nicholas, Col. Henry Oxburgh and James Talbot. Charles Wogan served as ADC to General Foster.
Charles Wogan was captured, and imprisoned in Newgate. Escaping from Westminster Hall, he fled to the continent with a price of £500 on his head.
Charles Wogan’s Role on the Continent
In 1718 Wogan entered the service of France, joining the regiment of his cousin, Arthur Dillon.[13] After a short time he joined the Papal court at Avignon, becoming a secret agent for the Stuart cause. The same year he accompanied James Butler of Ormond to Russia. [14] Here he attempted to forge an alliance between the Tsar, Charles XII of Sweden, and the Stuarts for a proposed assault on their common enemy, George I, Elector of Hanover.
Wogan also sought, without success, to find a bride among the daughters or nieces of the Tsar of Russia for James Stuart, known as King James III to his Jacobite supporters, or as the ‘Old Pretender’ to the supporters of King George.
Wogan was more successful in selecting another potential bride for the King.
James Stuart, King James III, the ‘Old
Pretender’
Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska
Charles Wogan rescues Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska
In 1719 Charles Wogan led a daring escapade to rescue the wealthy, sixteen-year-old Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska of Poland who had been imprisoned in Innsbruck by her uncle Charles VI of Austria.[15] This imprisonment was to prevent her marriage to King James III. Maria Clementina’s captivity was at the instigation of King George I to impede the Stuart line providing a further rival to his throne.
Princess Sobieska was a granddaughter of John Sobieski, King of Poland, who had defeated the Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
Wogan was accompanied on his mission by Richard Gaydon (his uncle), Captain Lucius O’Toole, and by Captain John Misset, an officer of his cousin, General Dillon’s regiment.
The escape plan was successful, and Maria was married by proxy in Bologna, with Wogan representing James Stuart.[16]
James and Maria were then married in Rome by Pope Clement XI, who was also the bride’s godfather. Charles Wogan was a witness at the wedding. The Pope gave Charles Wogan Rome’s highest civil honour by making him a Senator of the city. King James III promoted Wogan to the rank of colonel.
Solemnisation of the marriage, in 1719, in Rome, of Prince James Edward Francis Stuart and Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska, by Pope Clement XI
Charles Edward Stuart, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, was the son of James and Clementina, and heir to the Stuart claim to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland.[17]
The marriage was not to prove to be a happy one. After the birth of their second son, Henry (in later life a cardinal), Clementina left her husband, to take refuge in a convent, returning after two years.[18] In the following years she found consolation in the practise of her religion.
Maria Clementina died in 1735, aged 32, and is buried in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. A monument to her memory was commissioned by Pope Benedict XIV, and is one of the few representations of lay people in St. Peter’s.
The inscription on this monument in St. Peter’s Rome, reads:
MARIA CLEMENTINA M. BRITANN. FRANC. ET HIBERN REGINA (‘Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland’) – There was a Plantagenet claim to the French throne.
Charles Wogan in Spain
Charles Wogan went next to Spain, where he became a colonel in the Spanish army. He fought the Moors, and took part in the relief of Santa Cruz. Philip V made him governor of La Mancha.
In July 1724 the authorities intercepted a parcel from James Horan and his solicitor, Francis Glascock.[19] This was addressed to James Wogan[20], at the College of Navarre, Paris, and contained letters from Sir Charles Wogan and his brother, Nicholas, who were known to the authorities as prominent émigré Jacobites. Glascock was charged with high treason for possessing three letters from Charles Wogan, and committed to Newgate prison, from which he successfully petitioned for bail.
Wogan was in frequent correspondence with King James III. In a letter, dated 10 May 1729, Wogan assessed the motivation of the Irish Brigades, the importance of landing a Franco-Irish expeditionary force, the suitability of Munster and Connaught for such a landing, the resilience of the Irish Jacobites, and the iron grip of the Catholic clergy on the conscience of their flock.[21] His contribution to the Jacobite cause also included the drawing up of invasion plans of England and the provision of arms to supporters in Ireland.[22]
Writing to King James on 18 May 1729, Wogan lamented that 100,000 Irish men had died in the service of France since the 1690s. James also received a copy of the Swift’s Complete Works from Wogan[23].
After the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden on 16 April, 1746, Wogan was still writing to King James. On 15 December, 1746, he optimistically forecast the ultimate triumph of the Jacobite cause, while blaming French duplicity and lack of Franco-Spanish support for previous setbacks.[24]
Charles Wogan, a Friend of Dean Swift
Jonathan Swift was in regular contact with prominent Jacobites, including Sir Charles Wogan.[25] Writing to Swift in 1733, Wogan claimed that 120,000 Irishmen had lost their lives in the service of France since the 1690s.[26]
Jonathon Swift by Charles Jarvas (detail)
Denis Murphy[27] states that in the 17th Volume of Scott’s edition of ‘Swift’s Works’, pp. 417 -447 are found some letters that passed between Sir Charles Wogan and Dean Swift. Wogan was then living in Spain from where he had sent Swift a cask of wine and some pieces of poetry which he had composed, and for which he requested ways they might be improved.
Charles Wogan was appointed governor of La Mancha in 1744, served with the Duke of York at Dunkirk in 1746, and as governor of Catalonia in 1750. He died in Barcelona in 1754 in his 59th year[28].
Clongowes Wood, County Kildare
Clongowes is mentioned in the roll of Henry IV, 1317, when Silva de Clongow (the wood of Clongow) was listed as the dower land of Sir David Wogan of Rathcoffey. In the early 1400s it was taken over by the Eustace family.
The Eustaces, over the years, intermarried with the Gaelic O’Byrne, O’Toole and Kavanagh families. The O’Byrnes had, until they had been ejected by the Anglo-Normans, occupied the territory of Ui Faolan where Clongowes (Cluain Gabhann) was situated. From there they were driven to Glenmalure area of the Wicklow Mountains. The Eustaces joined the Irish side in the rebellion of 1641. Mrs. Eustace, then aged over ninety was one of 150 women and children killed by Cromwellian soldiers in 1642.[29]
Wogan Marriages[30]
Nicholas Wogan of Rathcoffey (d. 1770) married Rose O’Neill (daughter and heiress of Sir Neill O’Neill, Bart.). They had a son, John Wogan of Rathcoffey, and two daughters Frances and Catherine. John married Helen Browne a sister of the Lord Kenmare. Frances married John Talbot of Malahide Castle[31], circa 1735. Catherine married Michael Browne of Castle Browne, County Kildare, and was mother of Judith Wogan-Browne.
Portraits of Nicholas Wogan and of his son John are to be found at Malahide Castle, Co Dublin. The bulk of the art collection of the castle was purchased by the National Gallery of Ireland at auction in 1976.[32] Portraits of Rose O’Neill, Frances Talbot and other family members can be viewed on the online collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.[33]
The Browne and Wogan-Browne families
Clongowes was sold to Chief Justice Reynell after 1642, as the Eustaces were deemed by the Caroline Act of Settlement to be ‘Irish Papists – not innocent’.[34] He sold it to a Dublin barrister, named John Browne in 1667. The Brownes changed the name to Castle Browne, and extended the old castle in 1718 and again in 1788. The 1718 work was carried out by Judith’s grandfather, Stephen Fitzwilliam Browne (d. 1767). Stephen was a member of the Fitzwilliam family after whom Fitzwilliam Square and Fitzwilliam Place in Dublin are named.[35]
Castle Browne, County Kildare, now part of Clongowes Wood College.
Judith Wogan-Browne’s Immediate Ancestors
In 1710 Stephen Browne had married Judith, daughter of his Catholic neighbours, John and Judith Wogan of Rathcoffey. It was after this grandmother that Judith Wogan Browne was named. Judith Wogan, in turn, had been named after her mother, Judith Moore.
This Wogan house at Rathcoffey, County Kildare, was purchased by Archibald Hamilton Rowan from Richard Wogan Talbot, son of Frances Wogan, in 1785, and extended to incorporate the original Wogan dwelling. (Courtesy of Seamus Cullen)[36]
This Judith Moore was a sister of Dr. Michael Moore who served as Catholic Curate of Rathcoffey, and was appointed, in 1689, by King James II, as Provost of Trinity College, Dublin while the city was under Jacobite control.[37]
The Browne family were also noted ‘Wild Geese’. Judith’s father, Michael, served as a Colonel in the French army[38], and was a Chevalier[39] of the Order of France in the Court of Louis XV. Dr. Catherine Ann Power is of the opinion that Judith, being his eldest daughter was almost certainly born on the continent.[40]
At the time of her birth, Judith’s uncle, John was the head of the Wogan-Browne family and the occupant of Castle Browne. Judith’s parents lived much of their married life in Belgard House, a Wogan property situated halfway between Kilcock and Rathcoffey, County Kildare. Seamus Cullen states that Judith may have been born there, as may her brothers, Thomas-Wogan-Browne (1758-1812) and General Michael Wogan-Browne (1760-1824).[41] Judith had one sister, named Eliza.[42]
In 1744 Judith’s father, Michael Browne, had accompanied Charles Edward Stuart (who was known variously as the ‘Young Pretender’ or as Bonnie Prince Charlie) to Scotland, and was to take part in the Jacobite campaign there. Mary O’Riordan states that an uncle of Judith’s, Nicolas Wogan, from Rathcoffey, also took part in the Battle of Culloden.[43]
Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the ‘Young Pretender’.
Michael Browne’s younger brother, Anthony, and Judith’s brother, Michael Wogan-Browne, both served in the army of the King of Saxony.[44] In later centuries members of the Wogan-Browne family carried on the military tradition by serving in the British Army, as we shall see.
Wogan-Browne Crest[45] (Courtesy of Delany Museum, Tullow, County Carlow)
A Curious Occurrence at Castle Browne
Turtle Bunbury recounts the following story from Weston St. John Joyce’s 1920 book, The Neighbourhood of Dublin.[46]:
In the year 1757, one of the Brownes, not named here, was killed at the Battle of Prague. He was serving as a Marshal in the Austrian army. Judith Wogan-Browne may have been about seven years old at the time.
On the day in question, Marshal Browne’s sisters were upstairs in Castle Browne, engaged in needlework, while the servants were downstairs in the laundry benefiting from the heat of its fire. This laundry room was situated off the hall, the door of which was open on this occasion, as was the door of the laundry.
The servants were astonished to see a fully uniformed officer enter the hall, holding his hands to his breast, from which blood poured onto his white tunic.
They followed him upstairs to the room in which the two Misses Browne were working, but, on arriving there, they found no trace of him. The two ladies had seen nothing; the story convinced the sisters that this was a sign that he had been killed in battle.
They requested that two Masses be said for the repose of his soul. Mourning began, and a lavish gentry-style wake was held.
Two weeks later word arrived that Marshal Browne had indeed been killed in the Battle of Prague on the date, and at the time, the servants had seen the strange event.
Judith Wogan-Browne’s Early Life
Judith Wogan-Browne, and her younger sister, Elizabeth Mary, were educated by the Irish Dames of the Benedictine convent at Ypres in Flanders[47], where she had two aunts, Dame Austin Browne and Dame Xaveria Browne, who were choir sisters[48]. One source gives her starting year there as 1767.[49]
Benedictine Convent Ypres before 1914 bombing
Ypres Convent after 1914 bombing
It is also believed that Nano Nagle[50], who founded the Presentation Sisters, was a pupil there from 1730 – 34. Likewise coming from a privileged background, and at the receiving end of the penal laws[51], Nano Nagle too had relatives in Ypres who were nuns.
Bro. Stephen Sweetman FSP received the following email from Sr. Maire Hickey of the Benedictine Community in Kylemore Abbey, County Galway:
According to the information we have, Judith Clementina Browne “entered” the school of the Dames Irlandaises at Ypres along with her sister Elizabeth Mary on July 5th 1767. Apparently they had two aunts who were nuns in Ypres. Judith would have been 17 at that point, not a child of school age. Maybe she went there as a kind of “finishing school” pupil with a strong religious bent, searching for her vocation?? It seems to be within the bounds of possibility that she was still there when Bishop Delany visited Ypres.
We know little or nothing about the school at that time – how many pupils, what age-groups, how small or large, what the motivation for going there was, what they studied etc. The Presentation sisters subscribe (tentatively I believe) to a theory that Nano Nagle spent time at Ypres as a young woman before returning to Ireland and starting her project which grew into the Presentation Sisters. Some believe that she actually entered the community and left, others say she was visiting relatives in the community (there were Nagles in the community). It would be interesting to find out more about what sort of young women were coming and going there in the 18th century, but unfortunately most of our records got lost in the vicissitudes of the 18th century, followed by the destruction of the monastery in 1914.[52]
Thus at some stage, either in France or in Ireland, Miss Wogan-Browne got to know the future Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Daniel Delany. In penal times there existed a network of Irish expatriates on continental Europe, which included students, clergy, members of the military forces, and even vineyard owners.
Before coming to Tullow, County Carlow Judith seems to have carried out charitable work elsewhere, possibly in her local area near Castle Browne.[53]The date when Miss Browne arrived in Tullow is not known[54], nor is the house where she lived in Tullow. However, Turtle Bunbury gives this quotation:
When (Delany) went to Tullow as parish priest, she followed him to Ireland and took a house in Tullow in 1780. A rich woman with an overpowering personality, Wogan-Browne remained the bishop’s intimate friend throughout his life.[55]
As is mentioned later in this essay, Judith is recorded as living in Tullow in 1798. In a letter, dated 30 December 1808, to Bishop Moylan of Cork, Bishop Delany gives the following description of Judith’s Tullow abode, deeming it unsuitable as an option for a religious foundation, maybe for Benedictine Nuns – which never materialised:
Miss Browne would cede most heartily her interest in the house and country possessed by her for a godly purpose [i.e. of accommodating the proposed religious foundation]. But what a diminutive tenement like hers and little patch of garden for anything like the due accommodation of one forth of so numerous a community even in its present infant state? A very pigeon house! …The small mansion she inhabits has a plot of garden annexed to it, little more than a slight rood in its contents. It is indeed well enclosed, nicely planted, and handsome enough for the site…Miss Browne’s actual tenure is only for 28 years on. She has also in her possession a nice little park at the bottom of her garden, containing at least three-quarters of an Irish acre; and extending almost to the very wall of the yard of the Parish Chapel. Of this then there are at present but a few years’ lease; but I persuade myself a long lease could be obtained of it, at the expiration of the existing one. The Dean of St. Patrick’s Dublin, Rev. Mr. Verschoyle[56], is landlord of the first two plots. Miss Browne’s house is not more than about 40 ft. long and 15 ft. wide, in the clear; and consists of two handsome, well-furnished apartments on the first-floor, and three neat ones on the second. Allow me add, that in point of beauty of situation, purity of air, seclusion, etc., though quite in the town, it may be said it could not be surpassed, at least in these parts.[57]
Judith’s maid, Ann Doyle went on to be received as a lay sister in Tullow Convent in 1841. Judith Browne paid £50 in part payment for her.[58]
Judith Wogan-Browne was to play a very influential part in Bishop Daniel Delany’s religious and educational initiatives.
Bishop Daniel Delany (1747-1814)
Daniel Delany was born at Paddock, near Mountrath, Queen’s County (now County Laois), during the era of the penal laws. His parents were well-to-do tenant farmers. His mother was Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, who may have been brought up a Protestant, but who died a Catholic.[59]
His father, also named Daniel, died young, following which the boy was reared by two maternal aunts, Miss Fitzpatrick and Mrs. Corcoran, shopkeepers in Mountrath. Senator David Norris’ (b.1944) mother was a Fitzpatrick from Mountrath, and the Fitzpatrick family had been in possession of a rosary beads (since disappeared) which once belonged to Bishop Delany.[60]
Delany was educated in a local ‘clandestine’ hedge school[61], and like many Catholics, requiring further education, he had, at age 16, to secretly transfer to the continent. This move was facilitated by local Protestant benefactors.[62] Delany pursued priestly studies in France, in College de Lombards, Paris. Daniel Delany was ordained Deacon in 1770 at the University of Paris. He was ordained priest probably in 1772.[63]
Tradition says that Daniel Delany then served for 7 years as Professor of Rhetoric at the English College, St. Omer, near the French port of Calais.
Daniel Delany was noted for his attractive personality, refinement, cultured mind, and for his wit.
Returning to Ireland, he was appointed curate in Tullow, and became Coadjutor (assistant bishop) to Bishop James Keeffe[64], whom he succeeded in 1787. The Tullow of the time shocked the young Delany by its poverty, ignorance, moral laxity and lack of religious sensibility.
The following account was given by Miss Browne to the first Brigidine Sisters:
He constantly went through the diocese to put down faction-fighting. He believed in taking people quietly, pointing out the sinfulness and barbarity of such behaviour. He went round to each home and tried to enlist the wives and mothers on his side. He dreaded crowds assembling. The people were too excitable. The greater number of them had got very little religious training and had no secular teaching.[65]
After many unsuccessful initiatives to address these issues, Daniel Delany set up Sunday schools[66], a choir and a band. His inspiration came from hearing a group of children at play on a mud-patch near the penal law chapel at the junction of Mill Street and Chapel Lane. Their game included a garbled verse for the Latin hymn, ‘Ave Maris Stella’ (Hail Star of the Sea) from the Vespers of Our Lady.
On the following Sunday ‘Mr Delany’ offered to teach liturgical hymns to the young people of the parish. After a slow beginning this approach provided a successful means of evangelising the youth and through them the adults.[67]
The Old Chapel building became a centre for two lay adult religious associations, called respectively the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament and the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. In 1800 Bishop Delany described the chapel as being for ‘for the greater part reduced almost to a heap of ruin’, though aggregate Mass attendance on a Sunday was 3,000.[68]
The Christian Sunday School education of children was carried out by volunteers from these confraternities who were trained by Bishop Delany, and who made great use of music and singing in their ministry. The teaching of literacy to those too poor to avail of the local hedge schools proved attractive, and led pupils on to ability to read religious texts. The Sunday schools progressed over time to weekday classes, evening classes, and even to home instruction.
Due to a relaxation in the penal laws, Dr Delany was able to exercise his ministry in a more public manner. He was courageous enough to begin the ringing of the Angelus bell, and to institute an annual Corpus Christi Procession.[69]
Bishop Daniel Delany (1747 – 1814)
Delany expressed an abhorrence of politics.[70] But his wish for rapprochement with the authorities, in support of freeing his religious mission, meant that in the 1790s he was one of several bishops who signed a loyal address to the government. He was also one of a minority of bishops who were willing to give the government a veto in episcopal appointments.[71]
Among Bishop Delany’s many achievements were the completion of Carlow College for the education of seminarians and laymen in 1793,[72] the building of Tullow Parish Church in 1805 and of Mountrath Parish Church in 1809, the founding in Tullow of the Brigidine Sisters and Patrician Brothers in 1807 and 1808 respectively.
Carlow College was opened in 1793 by Bishop Delany, the project having been initiated by Bishop James Keeffe in 1782. (Courtesy of Mary McQuinn)
The replacing of the old penal law chapel in Tullow began in 1799, apparently without a lease having been granted. Dr Delany had great difficulty in obtaining the lease for a site, at a reasonable price, from the local landlord, Robert Doyne.[73] It seems that Doyne was won over to grant the lease by the advice of his wife, influenced by a society call from her social superior, Judith Wogan-Browne.[74]
Surviving wall of penal law chapel, Mill Street, Tullow, County Carlow
Tullow in 1798
Tullow was the scene of much bloodshed in the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion. Early in July 1798 the fugitive Wexford rebel leader, Fr John Murphy of Boolavogue, County Wexford, and his companion, James Gallagher of Ferns, County Wexford, were captured, tried, tortured and executed in the Square in Tullow, County Carlow. Fr. Murphy’s body was decapitated, and the body burned in a barrel of pitch outside O’Callaghans’ premises in the Square, the present-day FDC offices. His head was placed on a fourteen-foot- high pole at, or near, the penal chapel gate.[75]
Monument to the rebel leader, Fr. John Murphy, The Square, Tullow, County Carlow
Thomas McGrath quotes a letter from Bishop Caulfield of Ferns (who had no sympathy for the rebels) to Archbishop Troy of Dublin. Dr Caulfield had been told by a Carlow student of Bishop Delany,
that he was in a miserable way, his Chapel filled with soldiers or horses, himself often insulted; and could not venture home, but remained in the town with Miss Browne and was much emaciated, however he writes in good spirits and has his chapel free now, the yeomanry in that quarter had killed at least one hundred of the United wretches…[76]
Bishop Delany decides to re-found the Brigidine Sisters
Because of the difficulty in keeping the Sunday Schools supplied with teachers, Bishop Delany decided that the only way forward was to invite in a group of nuns to provide continuity in the work. He had hoped to persuade the Presentation Sisters to come to his assistance, but they were unable to provide the required personnel. There would also have been a difference of emphasis between the bishop’s wish that the children of both rich and poor be educated, and the Presentation option of concentrating on the needs of the poor.
He therefore decided to invite suitable candidates from his team of catechists to form the nucleus of a home-grown religious community. These women came from neighbouring areas in Tullow, Clonmore and Ardattin, County Carlow. Their names and ages were, Eleanor Tallon (age unknown), Margaret Kinsella (48), Judith Whelan (37), Brigid Brien (30), Catherine Doyle (29), and Eleanor Dawson (29).
Delany’s criterion for choosing his first sisters was essentially spiritual. It could be summed up in ‘that they should build a lasting love of God on the ruins of their self-love’.[77]
Within twenty-two months of establishing the congregation, Delany had built a forty-foot extension to the original convent building and enclosed it with a ten to twelve-foot-high wall, thus emphasising that the Brigidines were to be an enclosed order.[78]
The Brigidine Congregation was, in Dr. Delany’s view, re-founded on 1 February 1807, the feast of St. Brigid, Patroness of the Diocese. To emphasise this link with St. Brigid’s early Irish order of nuns, an oak tree from Kildare town (site of St. Brigid’s convent) was planted by Bishop Delany in the Tullow convent garden. The tree still dominates this garden which was designed by Bishop Delany.
In an interesting link with Tullow’s medieval Augustinian friary, Doctor Delany gave the Sisters the Rule of Saint Augustine and the Directory of the Visitation Order, written by Saint Francis de Sales, a saint he had come to admire during his time in France.
Judith Wogan-Browne and the Brigidine Sisters
Dr Daniel Delany was Miss Wogan-Browne’s spiritual advisor, and he engaged her services to train the first Brigidines Sisters. The boarders in Ypres followed the Divine Office and sang the chant in Latin. Judith Wogan-Browne’s knowledge of convent ‘enclosure’ and organisation, as well as her academic training, and her competence in the ways of polite society were a great resource for the new venture.
Mary O’Riordan states that Bishop Delany, ‘invited her to spend much of her time in the little convent with the Sisters, and without ‘living in’, to actually become one of the household, even though she had no intention of becoming a nun’[79].
These six local women, who joined the fledgling Tullow convent, did not have the life-experience of the Irish aristocratic ladies who previously had entered religious life on the continent. In this new departure they were the pioneers of a life choice which was to become widely chosen and very influential in Ireland, and subsequently emulated world-wide.
Dr Catherine Ann Power questions Mary O’Riordan’s assertion that the ‘six were practically illiterate’. She contends that, given that they had been chosen by Delany in the first instance as catechists, they must have had the basic literacy to read spiritual literature. On the other-hand Delany wrote that Sister Clare Doyle was ‘very good in everything but the spelling which was miserably and shamefully bad in almost every word. Tell her so.’ (Delany’s emphasis)[80] Mary O’Riordan gives examples of poor spellings from the account books of 1840, e.g. ‘maches’, ‘medison’, ‘coffy’, ‘tathbrish’.
Whether prompted by issues around literacy, social graces, or the obligations of enclosure, an exasperated Miss Wogan-Browne wrote to Delany that she was unable to teach them as they appeared incapable of learning; Delany replied that she should take them gently as they did not have the advantages of her upbringing.[81]
Because of her membership of the Catholic gentry, and her continental learning, Miss Wogan-Browne was ideally suited to this task given to her by Dr Delany. Highly educated and gifted, she trained the first sisters in literacy, European languages, music, needlecraft and etiquette. An example of her embroidery is to be found in the Delany Museum, attached to Tullow Parish Church.
Example of Judith Wogan-Browne’s needlework (Courtesy of Delany Museum, Tullow, County Carlow)
A nun, to Delany, was to be ‘all evangelical meekness, sweetness, gentleness, charming condescension, forbearance and charity’…Nuns to be ‘moderate in speech’ and to ‘avoid … the behaviour… of low life among the uneducated’ and ‘those unacquainted with the manners of decent polished society’. They were to aspire to polished society ‘however humble their origin or deficiency’. They were expected ‘to be gentlewomen and possess some tincture of the habits and attainments of the upper orders’. [82]
The contribution of Judith Wogan-Browne was pivotal to the development of this culture in the infancy and the early growth of the Brigidine project.
Delany also gave her control of the finances of the convents in Tullow and in Mountrath (established 1809).
Judith Wogan-Browne’s importance extended beyond managerial and educational, even to the spiritual. Delany appointed her to take his place at all community meetings during his absences from Tullow. This role even extended to presiding at the weekly ‘Chapter of Faults’, when the sisters ‘manifested their consciences’.[83] In these matters she could be said to be taking the spiritual place of the superior and also functioning as a mistress of novices. Her status of exercising power, without being a member of the order, may have led to tension in the Tullow Convent.
The Tullow Brigidine Annals state that Delany stipulated that the sisters should not eat or drink with anyone except himself and Miss Browne.[84]
In 1809 Daniel Delany established a second convent in Mountrath, County Laois (Queen’s County). Mountrath and Tullow were the only two convents established in his life time. He encouraged both to keep in constant communication with each other.
The First Brigidine Schools
Delany instructed the sisters to charge the ‘children of the rich according to the branches they were learning’; and to charge the poor at the same rate they were paying in the neighbouring schools. He gave £20 per year to cover the fees of orphans and other poor children.
This mission of teaching both rich and poor pupils was from time to time to lead to problems in the area of snobbery.[85]
In 1815 the Brigidines agreed to take orphans from Dublin to be boarded out in the Tullow neighbourhood. This work was to pass on to Margaret Aylward[86], who used the template to found the St. Brigid’s Orphanage (non-residential, using a system of foster homes) in Dublin in 1856, and who went on to found the congregation of Holy Faith Sisters in Dublin in 1867.[87]
As the government became increasingly interested in education and with the first stirrings of the Protestant ‘Second Reformation’[88], Delany saw the need to attract better educated women to his institute. By 1812 he urged this course on his two communities in Tullow and Mountrath.
By 1820 the sisters were able to advertise that they taught Italian, French, English, the Sciences, and all the ‘accomplishments’ necessary for ‘the manners and life-style’ of ‘a young lady’.[89]
Gradually, as the school’s reputation grew, fee-paying pupils were attracted to Tullow from Dublin, Wexford, Kildare and Kilkenny. These pupils lodged in the town. In 1824, to remedy the situation of ‘respectable’ pupils having to stay in the town, the nuns applied to Bishop Doyle for permission to set up a boarding school.
Because of Judith Wogan-Browne’s control of the convent finances, Dr. Doyle gave his permission on condition that they gain ‘Miss Browne’s consent’. This was not given because ‘she did not want the responsibility in her lifetime’. A similar situation had arisen in the lifetime of Dr. Delany with exactly the same result.
The Brigidines were, however, to become the first congregation to open both select and boarding schools; (by 1837, the school had received its first boarder). Dr. Power quotes O’Riordan that, ‘they provided a broader educational background which would enable girls to take their place in society as cultured, poised, and essentially feminine women’.[90]
Thomas Wogan-Browne (1758 -1812)
Thomas Wogan-Browne, brother of Judith, had conformed to the Established Church. He married an English heiress, named Sarah Pearson on 1 December, 1785.[91] She was a ‘lady of considerable property in Westmoreland’.[92] The couple lived at Castle Browne, and had no children.[93]
Thomas’ conversion to Protestantism drew the following comment from Christopher Kelly Dillon, ‘young Browne of Castlebrowne has read his recantation, and by doing so has bartered his religion for a wife.’[94]
Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wogan Browne by George Romney (1734 – 1802), (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)[95]
As High Sheriff of Co.unty Kildare in 1789 Wogan-Browne was involved in the suppression of the Defenders in 1795.[96]
Lord Cloncurry[97] said that Thomas was, ‘a man of an extremely amiable disposition, and filled with the most ardent love of his country, and the most earnest desire to do his duty in all the relations of life’.[98]
In 1798 Thomas Wogan-Browne was mistakenly arrested, as a rebel, by Crown soldiers on the street in Naas. A hanging noose was placed about his neck. He was saved in the nick of time by the arrival of a dragoon with a letter addressed to Wogan-Browne from the Lord Lieutenant.[99]
Thomas Wogan-Browne was also a noted amateur architect. As well as remodelling Castle Browne, he also had commissions for Malahide Court (home of his Talbot cousins)[100], Ballinlough Castle, County Westmeath, and Killeen Castle, County Meath.
He served as a magistrate for a second term from 1806 to 1811. Thomas Wogan-Browne was a committed supporter of Catholic Emancipation. His last appearance in public was at a meeting of Protestant gentry in Naas in 1811.
Wakefield, in 1812, the year of Thomas’ death, wrote, ‘Wogan Browne (he never used his Christian name) although a convert, is still considered a Catholic.’ This ambiguity was to prove an important issue at his funeral.[101]
Dispute at the Funeral of Thomas Wogan-Browne
Thomas Wogan-Browne died in 1812 at Castle Browne, apparently by his own hand.[102] Thomas’ brother, Michael, was on military service abroad at the time. His sister, Judith, was the closest family member present at the burial. The interment service was due to be held in accordance with the rites of the Established Church at the Wogan-Browne Mausoleum, in Mainham, beside Castle Browne.
The Wogan-Browne Mausoleum, Mainham, Clane, County Kildare
When the mourners had gathered, Judith Wogan-Browne, as chief mourner on the day, and possessed of a strong and determined character, objected to the service being held in accordance with the rites of the Established Church. The following is Lord Cloncurry’s recollection of the incident:
Upon these respective grounds, the two parties among his neighbours claimed the right of interring his body according to their particular customs; and they fought out the quarrel in the churchyard over his coffin. Which party prevailed, I now forget; but this I know, that no man was ever buried, who during this life, exhibited or entertained less of sectarian rancour, or whose living feelings were less in unison with the passions that signalled his funeral.[103]
Judith Wogan-Browne would have been aware of an earlier dispute in the 1740s between the Rector of Mainham Church, Rev. John Daniel, and Stephen Browne, her grandfather, regarding the original siting of the mausoleum. The upshot of that particular controversy, was that Browne sited the mausoleum on his own land, three feet outside the boundary of the graveyard of Mainham Church.[104]
In the present matter of the burial of her brother, Thomas, Judith’s will prevailed. The local priest (probably Fr. Mark Kennedy) from nearby Clane was called. He duly conducted the funeral service in accordance with the rites of the Catholic Church.[105]
Death of Bishop Delany
Daniel Delany died on 9 July 1814. From 1812 his health had been visibly deteriorating. His house at Bishop’s Cross on the Dublin Road, Tullow, was in bad repair, the front wall having fallen in. He was prevailed upon by the convent Superior, Mother Catherine (Eleanor Dawson) to move to the convent, which he did in June 1813. The community room was vacated for him and was provided with his own bed and furniture. On 2 July Bishop Delany suffered an attack of apoplexy, and it was apparent that he was in his final days[106]. He had visits from Archbishop Troy of Dublin and Bishop Moylan of Cork. As he lay dying he was surrounded by a group of priests, sisters and brothers, as well as some local lay people. He raised his hand to give them blessing.
Miss Browne, whom he had deputed to instruct the Sisters, and to whom he had willed his property in trust, then asked his blessing that she might fulfil all his intentions. He looked up to heaven, raised his hand for the last time, and solemnly gave her his blessing in the most devout and affectionate manner.
Shortly after, he fell into his agony, which continued until 2.a.m., when he calmly expired while Mass was being offered in his room.[107]
Mother Mary Joseph Fitzpatrick, who had been present, returned to her convent in Mountrath. She frequently told the sisters there, that from her kneeling position, she ‘saw a halo and a glow of light surround his head and face’ as Bishop Delany expired.[108]
Four bishops, including Archbishop Troy of Dublin, seventy priests, and a crowd of up to five thousand people attended Bishop Daniel Delany’s requiem Mass.[109]
Bishop Delany’s Will – Miss Judith Browne appointed Executrix[110]
Delany had as much as £7,000 at his disposal. This money was apparently acquired from his mother and his aunts. As the law on charitable bequests was penal, money left for Catholic religious purposes was often sequestered.
On the advice of a Catholic barrister, Denys Scully, and of his solicitor, E. H. Gibbons, Delany got around this problem by depositing the vast bulk of his estate in debentures in the bank, in the names of individual sisters, in groups, who could only act with unanimous agreement. Both he and Judith Wogan-Browne were also to feature in these groups. The names of those in whom his money was vested were: Daniel Delany, Judith Wogan-Browne, Eleanor Dawson, Catherine Neale, Mary Fitzgerald and Anne Lalor.
His will, dated 7 December 1811, therefore gave no indication that the bulk of Delany’s estate had been handed over to a Catholic institution. His will listed such items as land, tenements, Government, Grand Canal, Royal Canal Debentures, household furniture, plate, pictures, prints, books, and went on to state that these:
I leave and bequeath to my dear and esteemed friend, Miss Judith Browne actually living in Tullow, Co. Carlow, and late of Castle Browne, Co. Kildare. I also appoint the said Miss Judith Browne sole executrix of this my last will and testament.
This will was proved by Judith Browne, Spinster, on 15 October 1814, ‘Amount not £500’.[111]
On the other hand, the Patrician Brothers had to be content with being left an annual income of £20.[112]
It is not recorded if Miss Wogan-Browne continued in her religious role. However, four months later the future Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, James Doyle[113], then a member of staff at Carlow College, wrote to his cousin Martin Doyle, parish priest of Clonegal, County Carlow,
Bishop James Warren Doyle, known as JKL (1786 – 1834)
Following the death of Bishop Doyle in 1834, Edward Nolan was appointed Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin.
Fr. Matthew P. Malone, Parish Priest of Mountrath, writing to Bishop Edward Nolan in 1834[115], states that, ‘one had to be firm as a rock’, and ‘very determined’ with Miss Browne.
Bishop Edward Nolan (1793 – 1837)
Judith Wogan-Browne was always governed by her interpretation of Delany’s written instructions; and as executrix of his will, she considered herself to be bound by his intentions, in so far as it was in her power to do so.
General Michael Wogan-Browne (1760 – 1824)[116]
In 1812, Judith’s other brother, Lieut. General Michael Browne, of the Saxony Army, inherited Castle Browne and its encumbered estates from their late brother, Thomas. Saxony was allied to Napoleon’s France, and Michael was at Moscow when he heard of his brother’s death. Napoleon is said to have signed his passport to return home. Wogan-Browne’s early return to Ireland saved him experiencing the disastrous French retreat from Moscow. This Wogan-Browne was by times Commander of the Guards, Governor of Dresden, and Aide-de-Camp to the King of Saxony.
The valuable library of the late Thomas Wogan-Browne was auctioned off by Sheriff Thomas Finlay on 31 October 1812.
In 1813 General Michael Wogan-Browne was spotted in full military uniform and decorations at a Daniel O’Connell rally, supporting Catholic Emancipation, held in the Fishamble theatre in Dublin.
In 1814 Michael Wogan-Browne, unwilling to live in Ireland in the absence of Catholic Emancipation, sold Castle Browne, along with 219 acres of land, to Fr. Peter Kenney S.J.[117], heading a group of 14 Jesuits for a price of £16,000. This purchase was not without criticism. John Gillard writing in the Hibernia Magazine made the following point:
A good deal of the Castle Browne land was retained by General Wogan-Browne. It remained the property of his male descendants in Ireland (resident in Dublin and in Naas) until the Land Act of 1923 made sale obligatory.
Fr. Peter Kenney S.J. (1779-1841) in later life
The new owners replaced the name of Castle Browne with its former name of Clongowes, and opened a school for the education of the sons of the Catholic gentry.
General Browne died on 27 February 1824 at the house of Peter Chagneau. His wife was Augusta Frances Prescott. She was a daughter of Col. Thomas Prescott, Guards, and a granddaughter of the first Viscount Falmouth. She died at Tours, France, on 30 October 1857.
General Browne’s son, Francis, married a daughter of Baron General de Trobriand, Chief of Staff to Marshal Davout. Francis was a Major in the Austrian Army. He died in Tours in 1876, leaving two sons and two daughters.
Their eldest son, Francis William Nicholas Wogan-Browne (1854 – 1927), was a Colonel in the British Army.
Miss Browne leaves Tullow
Less than seven years after Delany’s death, Judith Wogan-Browne suffered an extended attack of ill health. This necessitated her moving into the convent for care which even extended to sisters staying up with her at night. A letter dated, 12 July 1821, from Sr. Mary Anne Lalor to Bishop Doyle states: ‘Miss Browne is now quite satisfied to be without the Sisters at night, though at first she felt it very much’.[119]
In 1828 Miss Browne decided to sell her house in Tullow and to move to Dublin. The following announcement appeared on 12 May of that year in “The Carlow Morning Post”:[120]
To be sold for the term of thee lives and eleven years, and subject to a small annual rent – the house, offices, and garden lately occupied by Miss Browne in Tullow. They are well situated, exceedingly commodious, and fit for the immediate reception of a family. Proposals to be made (by letter, post paid) to Miss Browne, Cullen’s Wood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin or to Mr. Serenus Kelly, Monastery, Tullow, who will show the premises[121].
Bro. Serenus P. Kelly
Judith Wogan-Browne and Clane Convent School
Judith Wogan-Browne, having sold her house in Tullow, lived in Dublin from 1828; from there she continued to financially administer the Tullow convent.[122]
A letter in the Delany Archive, dated 26 September 1837, from a Fr. F.S. Coleman to Bishop Edward Nolan, shows her continued interest in supporting convents:
My Lord,
Understanding that Miss Browne of Castlebrowne, having left a house for nuns and the same being in your gift, I recommend the Poor Carmelites of Blanchardstown. May I expect an answer?[123]
Miss Browne went on to take an interest in the educational situation in her native area, and how it impacted on the poor of Castle Browne, Mainham and Clane. A report of the time stated:
Their poverty…obliges them to withdraw their children from school occasionally for agricultural or domestic purposes…Many are also prevented from attending school through want of clothing.[124]
The Annals of the Clane, Co.unty Kildare Presentation Sisters from 1839 state:
Mr. and Mrs. Sweetman, a worthy and respectable catholic family, came to live in Longtown within a few miles of Clane, being ever prominent in works of benevolence and remarkable for their great charity. They did not remain ignorant of the wretched state of the poor around them. Mrs. Sweetman went amongst them, instructed, clothed and employed the women in spinning for their livelihood[125]. Her next attention was to the poor children and Mr. Sweetman met her wishes in nobly contributing £700 to the building of the Convent. Miss Judith Browne generously co-operated in this good work by giving the magnificent donation of £350. She had for many years ardently wished for the accomplishment of this event and, in her zealous desire for the education of poor female children of the Castlebrowne Estate, she consulted by letter the saintly and celebrated Rev. Dr. Kenny.[126]
Miss Browne wrote to Dr Kenney S.J., Provincial, of the Jesuits, requesting him, subject to the bishop’s permission, to help them persuade a religious order to come to Clane so that the poor female children would receive an education.
In a long letter, dated 25 April 1828, to the benefactors, Dr. Kenney suggested that the convent be built in Clane, near the church, on the grounds of the Patrician Society School House, rather than at Mainham or Castle Browne.
He finally advised,
The circumstances of a crowd of young girls passing and re-passing our limits (Clongowes Wood) or meeting our pupils when going to or returning form school would, in spite of our vigilance, or that of the nuns be liable to many unpleasant consequences.[127]
Work on building the convent started in 1836.
Bishop Francis Haly (c. 1783 – 1855)
In 1838 the newly appointed Bishop Francis Haly asked the Presentation Sisters to come to Clane[128]. On 25 April 1839 five sisters arrived to found the convent. The first Superior was Mother Teresa Brenan. She, with two other nuns, arrived from Maryborough (Portlaoise), Queen’s County (County Laois); two sisters came from Carlow, and one from Drogheda, County Louth.
Former Presentation Convent, Clane, Co. Kildare
The Jesuits from Clongowes College were of great assistance to the nuns in setting up the new school.
Original Convent Primary School, Clane, County Kildare
Miss Browne returns to Tullow
Having lived in Dublin from 1828, Judith Wogan-Brown, in 1840, wrote to Bishop Haly requesting to take ‘lodging in the convent’ at Tullow because of her increasing infirmity. The bishop agreed. She paid £10 per annum for her room.
The nuns were ‘greatly inconvenienced’ because they had to give up their refectory to her. Because of this the bishop granted their request for permission to build a new refectory, kitchen and more cells. [129]
Mother Catherine McAuliffe was the Superior of Tullow convent during most of Miss Browne’s remaining years.[130] A prolific and chatty correspondent, she wrote:
Miss Browne has just passed through the community room to the chapel, to make her usual daily visit to the Blessed Sacrament, and I told her I was writing to you and asked her had she any commands for you – on which she desired me to say everything kind to you for her, and that Sister Xavier is now so much engaged that she hopes you will pardon her for not writing to you. [131]
This Sister Xavier had been Miss Browne’s maid (lady in waiting), Ann Doyle, from Tullow parish, mentioned above. She was professed as a Brigidine sister on 6 August 1845. Sister Xavier taught in the local primary school, and after thirty-two years of religious life in Tullow Convent, died there on 22 November 1877 at the age of 79.[132]
In another letter is found the following quip from Mother Catherine:
Miss Browne is in good spirits today, since she heard that the bishop will be home soon…[133]
Death and Burial of Judith Wogan-Browne
Judith Wogan Browne died on the 6 June 1848. The Tullow annals record this as follows:
Miss Browne after a life well spent died at the advanced age of 98
The Mountrath annals mark this event with a comment on the margin, ‘Miss Browne died’.
However, Mother Catherine McAuliffe in a lengthy letter, dated 14 June 1848, to Mountrath convent, describing her death, refers to her constantly as, ‘our dear Miss Browne’.
She noted how in the early stages, Miss Browne read much of books such as ‘The Art of Dying Well’ by Bellarmine.[134] As time went on she kept her eyes closed. When asked why she did this, she replied that she was ‘more recollected by it’. Then it came to a stage when she was unable to eat; Mother Catherine states, ‘it was astonishing how long she existed without nourishment’.[135]
Judith Wogan-Browne’ funeral Mass was attended by Bishop Haly and about twenty priests.
At her own request, Miss Browne was buried among her ‘sisters’ in the Tullow convent graveyard, rather than with her distinguished family members, in their mausoleum at Mainham, County Kildare.
The original Brigidine Convent building Tullow, County Carlow (now demolished). This is where Judith Wogan-Browne spent her last years. To be seen here also are the Kildare oak tree, the Sacred Heart Temple, and the monstrance-shaped garden designed by Bishop Daniel Delany, as well as the spire of the Delany parish church.
Judith Wogan Browne’s Will[136]
Miss Browne’s will was signed in the presence of James Lawler and Wm Deering on 2 March 1847. Two codicils were added in the presence of James P. Lawler and Patrick Murphy on 9 and 10 November 1847.
In the will she bequeaths the sum of £2,200 with interest to Bishop Francis Haly and to Mr. Edward Mooney of Henrietta St., Dublin. She states that this principal was secured by her in the judgement she obtained against her brother, General Michael Wogan Browne ‘for the penal sum of Four thousand four hundred pounds….which judgement has been assigned by me to secure a debt of Two hundred and fifty pounds with interest at five per Cent to the Community of Tullow Convent’.
She then bequeaths £1,250 plus interest, in trust, to Dr. Haly and Edward Mooney, which she is ‘entitled as one of the next of kin of my late Sister Eliza Browne’. She bequeaths £50 to Dr. Haly and £25 to Mr. Mooney, her executors. After her funeral and other expenses the residue is to be divided in equal shares between her nephews, Thomas Wogan Brown and Francis Brown.
She states that she was entitled to an annuity of £100 for her life, charged on the estate of her nephew, Thomas Wogan Browne, by the will of his father. She had not claimed this for several years, and now bequeathed all arrears due to the said Thomas Wogan Brown.
To Bishop Haly she bequeaths her large arm chair, mahogany tea store, and a large New Testament.
I give and bequeath unto Mrs. Catherine McAuliffe and the Community of Tullow (with whom I wish my remains to rest in their Cemetery) a Portrait of the Right Reverend Doctor Delany and one of Lady Dalton – also all furniture ever belonging to me in rooms or in the way of Kitchen furniture or utensils….I give and bequeath to Mrs. Joseph Fitzpatrick and the Community at Mountrath. A mahogany box…..to my Dear Mrs. Walsh of Gardiner Street Convent……To Sister Xavieria Doyle my old Silver Watch, a Gold ring and Secretaire….I appoint the said Right Reverend Doctor Haly and the said Edward Mooney executors of my Will.[137]
Doctor Daniel Delany (1774-1814). This portrait was bequeathed by Judith Wogan-Browne to Sr Catherine McAuliffe and the Brigidine Community at Tullow
On the 9 November, 1847, Miss Browne added a codicil stipulating that if
My said Nephews Thomas Wogan Browne and Francis Browne shall die without issue lawfully begotten, My will in such a case is that the property in the above will bequeathed by me to the said Nephews shall after their deaths be vested in and become the property of the Right Reverend Francis Haly….In trust for promoting any object he may consider best calculated to promote the honor and glory of My Heavenly Father. I leave and bequeath to the reverend Denis Muldowney ten pounds and to the reverend Joseph Murray five pounds that they may offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the eternal repose of my soul…and whatever I may owe to the Convent at Clane out of the annuity granted by me for the support of that Institution at my death, my Will is that it shall be paid by my executor with the same punctuality as any of my lawful debts. I leave and bequeath to the poor of the parish of Tullow ten pounds.
Grave Cross of Mother Catherine McAuliffe, Superior of Tullow Convent during the last years of Miss Judith Wogan-Browne
Grave Cross of Sr Xavier Doyle, former maid of Miss Judith Wogan-Browne
The Killing of Lieutenant J.H. Wogan-Browne (1896 – 1922)[138]
On Friday, 10 February 1922 Lieut. John Hubert Wogan-Browne was shot dead and robbed of £135 by a gang of three men on the main street of Kildare town. Jack, as he was known, had just withdrawn the cash from the bank, to pay the soldiers in the local Royal Field Artillery Barracks.
A truce had been declared the previous June, ending the Irish war of independence. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed the following December 1921. The 7 January 1922 saw the Dail pass the Treaty by 64 votes to 57.
Preparations were being made for the handing over of British power, including military barracks to the Irish Government. The threat of a civil war, due to disagreement among the former comrades over the acceptance of the treaty, began to loom large.
The civil war was to formerly break out on 28 June 1922, with the storming of the Four Courts which had been taken over by anti-treaty forces.
Ancestry
Jack Wogan-Browne was a great-grandson of General Michael Browne and Augusta Frances, making him a great-grand-nephew of Judith Wogan Browne. It is remarkable that his killing took place in Kildare town, site of the original convent of St. Brigid.
He was the youngest son of Colonel Francis William Nicholas Wogan-Browne (1854 – 1927) and of Bridget Costello, formerly of Foxrock, Dublin. Col. Franz William Wogan-Browne, as he was known, had a distinguished career in the British army, serving in India, South Africa (where he was Colonel- in-command during the Anglo-Boer War), and England.
(Courtesy of Kildare Library and Arts Services)
(Courtesy of Kildare Library and Arts Service)
Franz and Bridget Wogan- Browne’s eldest son, Francis Thomas served with the British Army in the Boer War at the same time as his father. He died, by drowning, in a swimming accident in Greystones, Co.ounty Wicklow in 1902.
Early Life of John Hubert Wogan-Browne
Jack Wogan-Browne was born on 23 July 1896 near Aldershot in England, where his father was stationed. He attended Cheltenham College, where he was a keen Rugby player.
Lieutenant John Hubert Wogan-Browne.
(Courtesy of Mark McLoughlin and Cheltenham College)
Military Career
In 1914, on the eve of the Great War, John Hubert Wogan- Browne was admitted to the British Army as a gentleman cadet. He served in France from September 1915 with the Royal Field Artillery, as part of the Tenth Irish Division.
There Wogan-Browne received a number of promotions, and was mentioned in dispatches in November 1917. He was appointed aide-de-camp to general officer commanding the brigade and as acting captain. He was transferred to Alexandria, Egypt in 1919.
Posting to Kildare Town
Jack was posted to the 48 (Howitzer) Battery stationed in Kildare town in 1920. Being stationed in Kildare meant that Jack was close to the family home in Naas, County Kildare. He often served Mass in Naas in the mornings before travelling on to Kildare.
Athletic Prowess
Jack was a talented athlete. He won the 880-yards final of the Irish Command sports in June 1920 by 10 yards. He played senior Rugby with Lansdowne Rugby Club in Dublin, at three three-quarters, helping them to win the senior championship in 1921. Jack had represented the British Army at Leyton on 26 January against a United Hospitals’ team. He was scheduled to line out with Lansdowne the day after the robbery.
Political and Military Situation in Kildare
Kildare town was regarded by the British as a safe area, being part of the Curragh – Newbridge – Kildare triangle. There had been no trouble in the town; and the relations between the barracks and the local people were generally good.
However, with the passing of the treaty, the release of republican prisoners, and the increasing instability, the British were anxious to evacuate their troops and their families as quickly as possible. Instructions were issued to all military stations to revise security. These instructions had not reached Kildare barracks.
The Events of 10 February 1922
At 10.30 a.m., on the 10 February Wogan-Browne collected a cheque from Lieut. Col. Arthur Graves Leech, battery commander, for £135, the weekly pay for the 48 Battery. He walked alone the 500 yards from the barracks to the Kildare branch of the Hibernian Bank. There the cashier, Charles Swain, issued him with notes and silver to the amount of £135, which he put into a haversack.
Wogan-Browne left the bank, and was walking by the national school, when he was confronted by two individuals holding revolvers. One shouted ‘hands up’, and tried to grab the haversack. Wogan-Browne struggled with one assailant and was dragged across the road. He dropped the haversack. The other assailant grabbed the haversack, threw it into a car, and shot Wogan-Browne in the head over the right eye with a .35 automatic pistol.
The car and driver had been hired from a local garage a short time before. The assailants got into the car where a third assailant was sitting behind the driver. The car then drove off.
The incident had occurred one hundred and fifty yards from the barrack gate. The sentry on duty, Driver Harold Onions, ran to the scene, carried Wogan-Browne down to the barrack gate, put him into a cart, and brought him to the barrack hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Response of Irish and British Authorities
A joint search by RIC, British Army and Irish Volunteer Police failed to find the culprits.
The immediate British War Office response was to suspend the evacuation of troops from Ireland.
Two days after the killing Michael Collins contacted Winston Churchill by telegram. This telegram stated that he had
just been informed by telephone that we have captured three of those responsible for the attack on Lieutenant Wogan-Browne. Everyone, civilian and soldier has co-operated in tracking those responsible for abominable action. You may rely on it that those whom we can prove guilty will be suitably dealt with.
Churchill reported on this to the House of Commons on the next day.
Arrests made
Following the initial investigations, the case was taken over by the officer commanding 1st Eastern Division IRA and was carried out by the 7th Brigade IRA. This resulted in the arrest of a number of men from the Ballysax and Suncroft areas of County Kildare. These included the driver of the hired car. Most of those arrested had served in C Company, 6th Battalion, Carlow Brigade IRA which operated in the Ballyshannon and Suncroft areas. Three were committed from the Parish Court, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, but were released from Mountjoy Prison by order of the Adjutant General on 29 May 1922. It seems that there was lack of evidence against them, and no one was willing to make a statement in the case.
Funeral
The funeral of Lt. J.H. Wogan-Browne took place, with full military honours, on 14 February 1922.
The Requiem Mass took place in the RC church, the Curragh. Gun carriage, pallbearers, firing party, trumpeters, and following party from the 48 Battery RFA, were in attendance. The body and personnel attending the funeral were then transported from the church gates to the Depot Barracks, Naas. From there a procession, led by an army band, then proceeded to the cemetery at Naas, where the interment took place[139].
J.H. Wogan-Browne’s affairs are settled
Jack Wogan-Browne’s sister Mrs. Claire Lillis paid his mess bill in Kildare Barracks, and money found on his person were used to pay his groom and servant, and to pay for clothes left with a tailor.
(Courtesy of Kildare Library and Arts Service)[140]
John Hubert Wogan-Browne Obituary
John Wogan-Browne’s obituary was printed in the next edition of the Clongownian.
It noted his popularity among ‘all classes and parties’. His father, Colonel F. Wogan Browne was now the last surviving male representative of the Brownes of Caltlebrowne.
The writer remarked that after the sale of Clongowes, the family continued to hold considerable property in the neighbourhood, which was finally sold to the tenants at the beginning of the 20th century. The writer went on to state that, even after of the great agrarian crisis from which the country had recently emerged, no bitter recollections of their ownership can be traced.
The obituary felt bound to record that John Wogan Browne was not unworthy of his honoured ancestors, great soldiers and great Catholics. It concluded:
‘His record as an officer, a sportsman, and an athlete is publicly known, and needs no words of ours to enhance it.’
Death of John Hubert Wogan-Browne’s parents
Jack’s mother had died in June 1920. His father Col. Franz Wogan-Browne died in France on 12 April 1927 while on a motor tour. He is buried in St. Iduc. He was the last holder of the Wogan-Browne name in Ireland. The death of his son, Jack, is referred to in his obituary:
It was a crushing blow from which he never recovered, and shortly after he left his place, Keredern, near Naas, never to return.[141]
The Wogan-Browne family in more recent times
During World War II an aunt of Jack, Madam Anna Wogan Browne, a nun in the Cenacle Congregation, died at the age of 90. These nuns had come from France to Ireland to establish their first Irish foundation at Killiny, CoumDublin.
In 1984 Sister Conleth Campbell, a member of the Brigidine congregation in Australia, made contact with Mrs. Judith Williams (nee Wogan- Browne) a descendant of Thomas Wogan-Browne, a nephew of Judith Wogan-Browne, whose ancestors had come from Ireland. Mrs. Williams and her husband, Colin, came to Ireland, on holiday, in 1988, and visited the Brigidines sisters.
At the time of writing (2016), Professor Jocelyn Wogan-Browne who holds the Thomas F.X. and Theresa Mullarkey Chair of Literature, Fordham University, New York, is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and on the Editorial Board of Speculum. She graduated with BA from University of Melbourne, M.Phil. fromo University of Oxford, and PhD from University of Liverpool.
The Legacy of Judith Wogan-Browne
The story of the Wogan-Browne family is one of an influential presence on the national and international stage. Judith’s contribution could be argued to have been the most influential and long-lasting of all. The late Brigidine Sister Mary O’Riordan states:
Miss Browne was…gifted with the ability to impart to the Sisters many other dimensions of their lives, – spiritual, educational and cultural – that have redounded to the benefit of several generations of Brigidines, down to the present day.[142]
Dr Ann Power states:
Browne’s story is not dissimilar to that of other wealthy lay devouts in the establishment of female religious congregations – Nano Nagle ant Catherine McAuley, for example – but they unlike Browne, took the habit, but only to ensure their communities’ service to the poor, sick and educationally disadvantaged, [143]
From its beginnings in Tullow, the educational success of the Brigidine Sisters has spread from Ireland to Australia, Papua New Guinea, China, England, Africa, Mexico, New Zealand, United States and Wales. They have branched out into areas such as parish work, prison and hospital ministries, holistic centres, asylum seekers, and homeless, trafficked women and children, local, national and global issues.
Judith Wogan-Browne, in the view of Mary O’Riordan, can be truly hailed, apart from Bishop Daniel Delany, as perhaps the greatest Brigidine benefactor, described in the Brigidine records as this saintly and devoted daughter of the Church[144]
A VERSION OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN CARLOVIANA 2017, AND IS REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION OF THE EDITOR.
Bibliography
Bunbury, T. (2014) The Glorious Madness, Tales of the Irish and the Great War. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan
A Brigidine Nun (1963) Watching for the Dawn – The Story of a Great Irish Bishop. Enniscorthy: Redmond Brothers Printers
Brigidine Annals, Delany Archive, Carlow College
Brigidine Post Primary School, Patrician Post Primary School, Tullow (1978) A Commemorative Magazine
Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society (1989) Carloviana
Church of the Most Holy Rosary, Tullow (2005) Tullow its Church & its People Publication to commemorate bicentenary of dedication of parish church
The Clongownian (1927)
Comerford, M. (1886) Collections relating to the Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin., Vol I and Vol. III. Dublin: James Duffy and Sons
Cullen, S., Editor (2011) A History of Christianity in Clane & Rathcoffey, Clane, Co. Kildare: Clane and Rathcoffey Ecclesiastical History Committee
Cullen, S., (2015) Charles Wogan (1685-1752): The amazing career of a “Wild Geese” patriot, The Bridge, St. Mocua Historical Society
Cunningham, B. (2010) The Annals of the Four Masters. Dublin: Four Courts Press
Dalton, E.A. (1911) History of Ireland. Vol.1. London: The Gresham Publishing Company
Dixon, W.M., (1902) College Histories: Trinity College Dublin, London: F.E. Robinson & Co.
Failte Ireland (2010) Carlow- trails of the saints. Carlow: Carlow County Council
Furlong, N., (1991) Fr. John Murphy of Boolavogue (1757-1798). Dublin: Geography Productions
Gibbons, M. (1931) Glimpses of Catholic Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, Restoration of the Daughters of St. Brigid by Most Rev. Dr. Delany, Dublin: Browne And Nolan Limited
Law, H.A. Sir. Charles Wogan, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Dec. 31, 1937)
Quidnunc, An Irishman’s Diary, The Irish Times, 1 February, 1954.
McEvoy, J. (1993) Carlow College 1793-1993. Carlow: The Carlovian Press
McGuire, J.I. Quinn, J., Editors (2009) Dictionary of Irish Biography , Cambridge University Press
McGrath, T., Editor (2008), Carlow History and Society. Dublin: Geography Publications
McGrath, T. (1999) Religious Renewal and Reform in the Pastoral Ministry of Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin, 1786 – 1834. Dublin: Four Courts Press
McLoughlin, M., (2014) Kildare Barracks – From the Royal Field Artillery to the Irish Artillery Corps, Sallins, Co. Kildare: Merrion an imprint of Irish Academic Press
Magray, M.P., (1998) The Transforming Power of Nuns: Women, Religion, and Cultural Change in Ireland, 1750-1900, Oxford University Press
Morrissey, T., (1996) As One Sent, Peter Kenney S.J. 1779-1841 Dublin: Four Courts Press
Murphy, D., The Wogans of Rathcoffy, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Vol. 1, No. 2 (2nd Quarter) © 1890 Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
Nolan, W. and McGrath, T., Editors (2006) Kildare History & Society Dublin: Geography Publications
O Ciardha, E., (2004) Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, 1685-1766, Dublin: Four Courts Press Ltd.
O’Riordan, M. Pathfinders, The Brigidine Story, Dublin, Brigidine Convent
O’Riordan, M. (2001) Judith Wogan-Browne (1755-1848), Dublin, Brigidine Convent
O’Toole, J (1993) The Carlow Gentry, Carlow: Jimmy O’Toole
Power, C.A., (2014) A History of the Brigidine Sisters in Ireland and Australia, Unpublished Ph,D. Thesis submitted to Trinity College, Dublin
Power, Dr Ann, (2018) The Brigidine Sisters in Ireland, America, Australia and New Zealand, 1807 – 1922, Dublin, Four Courts Press
Tullowphelim Historical Society (2001) Ogham (00/01) Volume 17
Walker, L. (Date not given) To Build and to Plant, Tullow, Patrician Brothers Generalate
Walker, L. (1981) The Purpose of His Will, Galway
Newspapers
The Irish Times, Feb. 1, 1954
The Irish Times, Feb. 16, 1954
The Kildare Observer, Aug. 7, 1915
Websites
http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_family/hist_family_woganbrowne.html
http://www.archivesandrecordsmanagement.blogspot.ie/2005/06/clongowes-wood-college-archives.html
http://www.kildare.ie/library/ehistory/2012/06/
http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/view/objects/asimages
www.presentationsistersunion.org
www.presentationsistersunion.org/spirituality/default.cfm?loadref=283
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/penallaws.html
Acknowledgements
Turtle Bunbury, Travel writer, historian and author
Mario Corrigan, Kildare Library and Arts Service
Seamus Cullen, Historian
Sr. Mary Dalton CSB, Brigidine Archivist
Bernie Deasy, Archivist, Delany Archive, Carlow College
Margaret Doyle, Archivist, Clongowes Wood College
Michael Haren
David Kenny
Dr. Thomas McGrath, Registrar, Carlow College
Mary McQuinn
Michael Meade
Charles Payne
Dr. Catherine Ann Power, Historian
Eliza McCormack, Sotheby’s, Dublin
Marie McFeely, National Gallery of Ireland
Ann O’Shaughnessy, Malahide Castle and Gardens
Len Roche, Solicitor
Bro. Stephen Sweetman FSP, Archivist, Patrician Brothers, Sydney
[1] Catherine Ann Power, ‘A History of the Brigidine Sisters in Ireland and Australia’, (Ph.D. thesis, Trinity College, Dublin), p.79. Judith was given this second name, Clementina, in memory of Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska of Poland, who was rescued in Innsbruck by Judith’s relative, Sir Charles Wogan, and became the wife of King James III, the Stuart claimant to the English, Scottish and Irish thrones. See section below on Sir Charles Wogan. Seamus Cullen, A History of Christianity in Clane & Rathcoffey (Clane, County Kildare, 2011), p. 89, referencing The Clongowes Record 1814-1932, p.48, maintains that Judith Wogan –Browne was born circa 1756, and not 1750 as indicated on her headstone. Cf. http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_family/hist_family_woganbrowne.html
[2] Margaret Gibbons, Glimpses of Catholic Ireland in the Eighteenth Century,(Dublin, 1931), p.23. Sean O’ Shea, ‘Property Owners in County Carlow in the Year 1307’ in Carloviana (2016), outlines an inquisition carried out for King Edward I by Sir John Wogan. It states that “Edmund le Botiller holds one barony of Tulagh Offelmyth” (Butlers of Tullow), p55.
[3] Denis Murphy, The Wogans of Rathcoffy, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2nd Quarter, 1890), pp. 119 – 129
[4] The Irish Times, Feb 16, 1954 reported that Mrs. F.J. Lillis (nee Wogan-Browne), Palmerston Park, Dublin, a descendant of the Rathcoffey Wogans, loaned pedigrees, deeds and patents for an exhibition held in the Heraldic Museum, Dublin Castle, in February 1954, to mark the tercentenary of Colonel Edward Wogan. This would indicate a family connection between Edward Wogan and the Wogan-Browne family.
[5] The Pale was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government. It passed through the land of Castle Browne.
[6] Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was an English military and political leader. He became one of the principal commanders in the English Civil War on the Parliamentarian side. He was a signatory of King Charles I’s death warrant. He became 1st Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. He has been classed as a dictator, and also as a champion of liberty. His measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterised as genocide.
[7] This date is incorrect. Edward Wogan died in 1654
[8] Charles Wogan was knighted by the “Pretender”, King James III.
[9] Eamon O Ciardha, ‘Wogan, Sir Charles’ in J.I. McGuire, J. Quinn (eds), Dictionary of Irish Biography, [accessed on-line 12 October 2016]. Hugh A. Law, ‘Sir. Charles Wogan’ in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, Vol. 7, No. 1 (31 December 1937) pp 253 – 264, states that Sir Charles Wogan was from Richardstown. His proposed family tree gives William and Anne Wogan as Charles’ grandparents.
[10] Margaret Gibbons, op. cit., p. 16 states that Sir Charles was the grandfather of Judith Wogan-Browne. This would appear to be incorrect. The grandfather of Judith Wogan-Browne is given Law, op., cit., as Nicholas Wogan of Rathcoffey. Turtle Bunbury, op. cit. p. 2 agrees that Nicholas Wogan was Judith’s maternal grandfather, as does Seamus Cullen.
[11] Email, dated 23 March 2016, from Seamus Cullen, to the author
[12]E. O Ciardha, Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, 1685-1766, (Dublin, 2004) p. 377. Jacobitism (from the Latin, Jacobus, meaning James, and denoting Irish support for the exiled House of Stuart) was the main political ideology among Irish Catholics from the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and the French Revolution (1789).
The “Flight of the Wild Geese” refers to the departure of the defeated Jacobite Army under Patrick Sarsfield to France after the Treaty of Limerick in October 1690. More generally the term “Wild Geese” refers to Irish soldiers who served in continental armies in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
[13] O Ciardha, E., Dictionary of Irish Biography. [accessed online 12 October 2016]. Arthur Dillon (1670-1733) was born in Co. Roscommon. He was a Jacobite general in the French service, commissioned by King Louis XIV. He had a distinguished military career in such theatres as Spain (1693-1697), Germany (1701), and Italy (1702). In 1711 King Louis XIV conferred the title Count Dillon on him, and the governorship of the city of Toulon. (Murphy, David, Dictionary of Irish Biography) [accessed online 12 October 2016].
[14] James Butler (1665-1745), 2nd Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Jacobite, was born in Dublin Castle, and was educated in France and at Oxford. His first wife, Anne Hyde, was a niece of the Duke of York, later King James II. Ormond was a member of the English House of Lords, Chancellor of Oxford University and of Trinity College, Dublin, as well as a member of the Royal household. After “The Glorious Revolution” he changed his allegiance to King William, and was suitably rewarded, being made a gentleman of the king’s bedchamber, and a privy councillor. He took part in all King William’s Irish campaigns, and in his other continental battles, reaching the military rank of Major General. He was appointed a member of the Irish House of Lords. He also found favour with Queen Anne, being appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1703-1707). His political career in Ireland brought him much criticism in England, as did his military exploits on the continent. He fell out of favour with the new King George, and in 1715 was forced to flee to France, where he threw in his lot with the “Old Pretender”, who appointed him Captain General of his abortive invasion forces. Ormond died in Avignon in 1745, and was allowed by the Whig administration to be buried in Westminster Abbey. (Hayton, James, Dictionary of Irish Biography) [accessed online 12 October 2016]
O Ciardha, E., Dictionary of Irish Biography [accessed online 12 October 2016].
[15] Judith Clementina Wogan-Browne was christened in memory of this Polish Princess who was the disputed Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland
[16] Quidnunc, An Irishman’s Diary, The Irish Times, 1 February, 1954
[17] An account of this adventure was published by Charles Wogan in 1722, under the title, Female Fortitude Exemplified in an impartial narrative of seizure, and marriage of the Princess Sobieski, as it was particularly set down by Mr. Charles Wogan (formerly one of the Preston prisoners) who was chief manager of the whole affair. Reprint, Cathy Winch, trans., The Rescue of the Princess Clementina (Stuart): A 1719 Adventure of the Irish Brigades (Belfast Hist. & Educ. Soc. 2008)
[18] The story of rescue of Princess Clementina is well known in Austrian history, and has been the subject of a number of films in the German language. Seamus Coffey, Charles Wogan (1685-1752): The amazing career of a “Wild Geese” patriot, The Bridge 2015.
[19] O Ciardha, E., Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, 1685-1766, pp.200,201
[20] Dr. James Wogan was from Rathcoffey (McGrath, T., Kildare History & Society, p282,283). He was a brother of Sir Charles Wogan and of Nicholas Wogan. James Wogan received his doctorate in 1730, and taught theology at the Sorbonne from 1732 until his death in 1742. In 1733 Abbe James Dunne, later Bishop of Ossory, wrote to James III proposing Dr. Wogan as Bishop of the vacant Diocese of Kildare and o. King James offered Dr. Wogan the position, which he declined. King James III had the appointment of Irish Catholic Bishops in his gift, which was a further source of anger and fear among the Protestant authorities in England and Ireland. Hugh A. Law, op. cit., p. 257 proposed a family tree showing the three aforementioned Wogan brothers as coming from Richardstown, and not from Rathcoffey
[21] O Ciardha, E., op. cit., p. 262,263
[22] http://www.ricorso.net>Wogan_C>life
[23] O Ciardha, E., op. cit., p. 216
[24]O Ciardha, E., op. cit., p. 299
[25] Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet, and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.
[26] Ibid., p. 32
[27] Denis Murphy, op. cit., p. 128
[28] Seamus Cullen, Charles Wogan (1685-1752): The amazing career of a “Wild Geese” patriot, The Bridge 2015
[29] Margaret Gibbons, op. cit., p.24
[30] Turtle Bunbury, op. cit. p. 2
[31] The Talbot family came to Ireland in 1174 with Henry II. It survived the vicissitudes of history in Malahide Castle (with one break under Cromwell) from 1185 until 1976. These events included the Battle of the Boyne (12th July 1690) when fourteen members of the family sat down to breakfast that morning in the Great Hall of the castle; following their fighting in the Jacobite cause that day, all fourteen were dead by evening. The family remained Roman Catholic until 1714.
[32] Email to the author, dated 25 Nov. 2015, from Ann O’Shaughnessy, Castle Host, Malahide Castle & Gardens
[33] http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/view/objects/asimages
[34] Ibid., p. 24
[35] Mary O’Riordan C.S.B., Judith Wogan-Browne (1755 – 1848), p.1
[36] Archibald Hamilton Rowan (1751- 1834) was a wealthy landowner whose ancestors came from County Down. A United Irishman he was associated with the leaders, Wolfe Tone, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Napper Tandy. He lived in exile for some years in France and in the United States, and was permitted to return to Ireland in 1806.
[37] Email to this writer from Seamus Cullen. W. Macneile Dixon in College Histories Trinity College Dublin (London, 1902), pp.66 – 68 states: ‘ To Moore whatever honour we can give is due for his exertions, not only to restore order, but on behalf of Protestant prisoners, and for the use he made to restrain the more vindictive action of James and his agents’. Dr. Moore went on to hold educational posts in Italy, the Rector’s chair of the University of Paris, while he held in addition the post of principal of the College of Navarre and the Professorship of Philosophy, Greek, and Hebrew
[38] Turtle Bunbury, op. cit., p.1
[39] Knight
[40] Catherine Ann Power, A History of the Brigidine Sisters in Ireland and Australia, Unpublished Ph,D. Thesis, p. 79.
[41] Seamus Cullen, op. cit., p.89
[42] Turtle Bunbury, op. cit., p.3
[43] Mary O’Riordan, op. cit., p.2
[44]http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_family/hist_family_woganbrowne.html
[45] The author is indebted to Michael Meade, and to Michael Haren, for the following translation and background research into this motto and crest: “He who is not a stork is a tiger”. The significance of the motto is that the Brownes stood their ground in their loyalty to Catholicism; they did not fly away when challenged. The coat of arms was bestowed on the Browne family by King Charles 1.
[46] Turtle Bunbury, op. cit., p. 2
[47] Ieper is the Dutch and the only official name for this city. Ypres is most commonly used name in English, due to its role in World War I, when only French was used in official Belgian documents, including maps.
An English Benedictine Convent was set up in Ypres during the penal laws era. This became an Irish Convent in the 17th Century. Its first Irish Abbess was Mary Butler (1641 – 1723). She was born in Callan, Co. Kilkenny. (James E. Kelly in, Treasures of Irish Christianity, Vol. III – Ed. Salvador Ryan, p. 64).
In 1914 the convent, including its archive, was destroyed by German bombs. The small community were rescued by two Irish soldiers. (Turtle Bunbury, The Glorious Madness, p.7). These Irish Dames of Ypres eventually transferred to Kylemore Abbey, Co. Galway, where the religious community remains to this day.
[48] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 79. Choir sisters were generally engaged in professional duties, as distinct from lay sisters who carried out domestic duties
[49]www.presentationsistersunion.org/spirituality/default.cfm?loadref=283. This would give further evidence of Judith’s year of birth being 1756.
[50] Nano Nagle was born to wealthy parents in Ballygriffin, Co. Cork in 1718. She was related to Edmund Burke, the parliamentarian and orator. Due to her uncle, Joseph Nagle, converting to Protestantism, and holding extensive property on their behalf, her parents were able to bypass the penal laws, and, de facto, to hold on to their lands.
www.presentationsistersunion.org mentions Nano Nagle as being a pupil in in the Irish Benedictine Abbey in Ypres (1728-1734). The same article refers to Judith Browne, Foundress of the Brigidine Sisters, as being a pupil there (1767-74)
[51] The first of a series of major penal laws against Catholics was enacted by the Irish Parliament in 1697: “all papists exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction and all regulars of the popish clergy” to leave Ireland within a year. Prof. Lecky in History of Ireland in the 18th Century summarised these laws as follows: The Irish Catholic was forbidden to exercise his religion, receive an education, enter a profession, hold public office, engage in trade or commerce, live in a corporate town, own a horse worth more than £5, own land, lease land, accept a mortgage, vote, keep arms, hold a life annuity, buy land from a Protestant, receive a gift of land from a Protestant, inherit land from a Protestant, inherit anything from a Protestant, rent land that was worth more than 30 shillings a year, reap from his land any profit exceeding a third of the rent, be guardian to a child, when dying leave his infant children under Catholic guardianship, attend Catholic worship, himself educate his child, send his child to a Catholic teacher, employ a Catholic teacher, send his child abroad to receive an education. Law compelled him to attend Protestant worship. www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/penallaws.html
[52] Email from Sr. Maire Hickey OSB to Bro. Stephen Sweetman, March, 2016
[53] Explanatory panel, Bishop Delany Museum, Tullow
[54] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 78
[55] Turtle Bunbury, op. cit., quoting Mary Peckham Magray, The Transforming Power of Nuns: Women, Religion and Cultural Change in Ireland, 1770-1900 (Oxford, 1998). It may be noted Bishop James Keeffe (1702-87) was also the parish priest of Tullow. On moving to Kildare in 1779, he left Delany in charge of the parish. (Thomas McGrath, op. cit., p. 309
[56] The Rt. Rev. Dr. James Verschoyle (1750 – 1837) was Bishop of Killala and Achonry, and minor Canon of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. He may have been a member of the Irish Parliament. He married Frances Walsh on 8 April 1780. The family of Verschoyle (Verschuyl) emigrated from the Netherlands to Ireland in 1568, having suffered religious persecution because of their Calvinism.
[57] Mary O’Riordan CSB, Judith Wogan-Browne, p. 3, and Stephen Sweetman FSP., as yet unpublished book on Daniel Delany, chapter on Judith Wogan-Browne, quoting Evelyn Bolster RSM, “The Moylan Correspondence in Bishop’s House, Killarney: Part 1″ Collectanea Hibernica ,No. 14 (1971), p. 138. Bishop Delany was prepared to “yield up my little Convent of St. Bridget”, if it could accommodate the said proposed community. (p. 139)
[58] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 78. Ibid. p. 59 states that Delany was aware that certain suitable catechists would be deterred from becoming nuns through lack of means. He hoped that school fees and his own wealth would provide for these candidates. This must have proved impractical, because shortly after Delany’s death, his second successor, Bishop Doyle, made having a dowry compulsory for a postulant to enter the convent.
[59] Thomas McGrath, op. cit. p. 308
[60] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 17. Margaret Gibbons, op. cit., p. 66,67
[61] These illegal pay schools were set up as a response to the penal laws. As well as taking place outdoors, they also could operate in houses or in barns. Several thousand were flourishing in 1824. (Rev. Martin Brenan, Schools of Kildare & Leighlin A.D. 1775-1835, p.41)
[62] Bro. L.H. Walker, The Purpose of his Will, p. 5
[63] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p21
[64] Bishop James Keeffe took his Doctorate equivalent degree from the Sorbonne, Paris, and had been parish priest of Tullow, before being named bishop in 1752. (Comerford, Collections Dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin Vol 1, p. 83). He continued to reside in Knocknatubrid, Tullow. Keeping a low profile due to the penal laws banning bishops, Dr. Keeffe’s letters from Rome to him were addressed: ,Patrick Keeffe, Shopkeeper, Tullow’ and his letters to Rome were signed ‘ex loco nostrii refugii’, i.e. ‘from our place of refuge.’ In his eighties he began the building of Carlow College.
[65] Margaret Gibbons, Glimpses of Catholic Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, p. 133
[66] In 1780, Robert Raikes, from Gloucester, an Anglican layman and philanthropist, opened Sunday schools for the education of poor children who, in the early days of the industrial revolution, had to work 6 days, and were only free on Sunday. Teaching literacy led on to the learning of Catechism. The movement spread through publicity in the Gentleman’s Magazine, and in the Arminian Magazine. – Email to the writer from Mr. Charles Payne
[67] Bro. L.H. Walker, op. cit., pp 10,11
[68] Thomas McGrath, Religious Renewal and Reform in the Pastoral Ministry of Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin, 1786 – 1834 (Dublin 1999), p. 30
[69] The Angelus is a prayer, usually accompanied by the ringing of a bell. The angel referred to is Gabriel, a messenger of God who revealed to Mary that she would conceive a child to be known for the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38). Corpus Christi is a feast of the Catholic Church in honour of the Eucharist, held, in those days, on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday. [Latin: Corpus Christi Body of Christ].
[70] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 34
[71] Thomas McGrath, Kildare History & Society, p.314. Catherine Ann Power, op. cit. p. 43 refers to the Synod of Bishops held in Tullow in 1809 where this decision was taken. Because of the subsequent outcry this proposal was rejected by the bishops at their general meeting in Dublin the following year.
[72] Carlow College was founded in 1782 by Bishop James Keeffe. It educated Catholic priests and laity.
[73] Margaret Gibbons, op. cit., pp. 156,157
[74] Mary O’Riordan CSB, op. cit., p.4
[75] Margaret Gibbons, op. cit., p. 191, and Nicholas Furlong, Fr. John Murphy of Boolavogue, 1753-1798, p.162
[76] McGrath, T., in Kildare History and Society, p. 314
[77] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 61
[78] Ibid. p. 64
[79] Mary O’ Riordan CSB, Judith Wogan-Browne, p.4
[80] Ibid., p. 80
[81] Thomas McGrath, op. cit. p. 312
[82] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 78, quoting Unpublished Rule of Brigidine Congregation (1st February 1814)
[83] Ibid. p. 81
[84] Brigidine Annals, BC/Air/0507
[85] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p.67
[86] Margaret Aylward (1819-1889) was born in Waterford to a wealthy merchant family. Having made two attempts at religious life, she worked in Dublin, as a laywoman, for the relief of the poor. She served a six month’s prison sentence because of a child custody case arising out of her work for orphans. In 1867 Margaret Aylward founded the Holy Faith Sisters, as an un-cloistered order with no distinction between ‘choir’ and ‘lay’ sisters.
[87] Margaret Gibbons, op. cit., pp. 226,228, and http://www.holyfaithsisters.org
[88] The Second Reformation was an evangelical campaign from the 1820s onwards. It was organised by fundamentalists in the Church of Ireland and in the Church of England.
[89] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 77
[90] Ibid., p. 77
[91] Ibid., p.78. Margaret Gibbons, Glimpses of Catholic Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, p. 132 gives the date of his conversion as 1777
[92] Turtle Bunbury op. cit., p.4
[93] Ibid., op. cit., p.4
[94] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 78
[95] This portrait, from the contents of Mount Juliet, was sold by Sotheby’s Dublin (20 October 1987) for $12,599 USD, £7,615 GBP
[96] The Defenders were a secret oath-bound agrarian society founded in County Armagh in response to attacks by the Protestant Peep o’ Day Boys. By 1795 they had joined with the United Irishmen and took part in the 1798 Rebellion.
[97] Valentine Lawless was the 2nd Baron Cloncurry. His father, Nicholas, was a blanket manufacturer. On the death of his father, Valentine inherited the Lyons estate, near Celbridge, County Kildare, which was formerly owned by the Aylmer family, whose ownership extended back to the Anglo-Norman settlement. Lyons House was built for Lord Cloncurry in 1797. (Patrick J. Duffy, Kildare History & Society (Editors: William Nolan and Thomas McGrath), p.31). Cloncurry was a friend of Wolfe Tone, Robert Emmet, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and Henry Grattan. His sympathy for the 1798 Rebellion led to his imprisonment in the Tower of London. He was released, and in later life became active in the promotion of tillage among his tenants. Bishop Delany was a friend of Lord Cloncurry. Margaret Gibbons, op. cit., p.322, refers to Fitzpatrick’s The Life of J.K.L. Here Fitzpatrick criticises Delany for spending too much time on visits to the “patriot peer”, Lord Cloncurry, or with Bishop Moylan of Cork.
[98] Turtle Bunbury, op. cit., p. 4
[99] Ibid., p.4
[101] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 78
[102] Turtle Bunbury, op. cit. p.4
[103] Turtle Bunbury, op. cit., quoting Lord Cloncurry, p. 5
[104] Seamus Cullen, A History of Christianity in Clane & Rathcoffey, p. 80
[105] Ibid., p.90
[106] Apoplexy was a term for stroke
[107] Mary O’Riordan, Pathfinders: Part 1 , the Tullow Story p.14
[108] Mary O’Riordan, op. cit., p.15
[109] Ibid., p. 14
[110] Dr Delany’s will is reproduced in Margaret Gibbons, op. cit., pp. 318, 320
[111] Margaret Gibbons, op. cit, p. 320
[112] Thomas McGrath, Religious Renewal and Reform in the Pastoral Ministry of Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin, 1786-1834, p.32
[113] Bishop James Warren Doyle (1786-1834), known as JKL (James of Kildare & Leighlin), was born close to New Ross, Co. Wexford. Following his joining the Augustinian Order in 1805, he continued his studies at Coimbra, Portugal (1806-1808). He served in the Portuguese and British forces opposing the French invasion of Iberia. He was ordained in 1809 in Enniscorthy. Dr Doyle was Professor of Rhetoric and then of Theology in Carlow College from 1813-19. In 1819, at age 33, he was consecrated Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. He was politically assertive, and a prolific writer of books and pamphlets on pastoral, political, educational, and interdenominational matters. Dr Doyle was a powerful ally, and sometime critic, of Daniel O’Connell in the political campaign for Catholic Emancipation, appearing before parliamentary committees of the houses of Lords and Commons in 1825. He helped to establish the National School system in 1831. In 1833 he completed the construction of Carlow Cathedral, and died the following year.
[114] Catherine Ann Power, op., cit., p. 81
[115] Bishop Edward Nolan was born in Tullow in 1793. His mother, Mary Moore, married James Nolan (b. 1758) in 1787. Dr. Comerford in Collections, Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin vol.1 p.122 recounts, that while Mary Moore was still a girl, Dr. Keeffe, the then Bishop (See note 4 above) gave her an episcopal ring, telling her to keep it for one of her sons who should be a bishop. Edward’s mother kept the ring, not mentioning the matter except to her husband. When Bishop Keefe died she gave it to his successor, Bishop Delany, informing him of the circumstances of how it came into her possession. Dr. Delany accepted it, but only on trust, and returned it before his death in 1814. Edward Nolan was educated in Carlow College from an early age (1804-1811) and in Maynooth, where he was ordained in 1819. He was on the staff of Carlow College from 1819 to 1834. Dr. Comerford (ibid. p123) deals with his controversy with Bible Society in Carlow, 1824. Professor Nolan was vice-president of the college when Bishop James Doyle (JKL) died in 1834, and he succeeded Dr. Doyle as bishop. He died four years later, at the age of forty-four, a victim of typhus fever caught in the course of his ministry.
[116] Turtle Bunbury op. cit., p.6
[117] Fr. Peter Kenney S.J. (1779-1841) received his early education in the backstreets of Dublin. He studied for the priesthood in Carlow College, in England and in Sicily, where he was awarded his D.D. degree. On returning to Ireland, he was appointed Vice-President of Maynooth College. In 1814 he set up Clongowes College. He was sent to the United States, by the Jesuit General, as Visitor and Overall Superior, in 1819-20 and 1830-33.
[118] Bradley, Michael, 2005, Clongowes Wood College Archives Article, available from http://www.archivesandrecordsmanagement.blogspot.ie/2005/06/clongowes-wood-college-archives.html, [Accessed 29 February 2016]
[119] Mary O’Riordan, Judith Wogan-Browne, p.8
[120] Ibid. p.8
[121] Bro. Serenus P. Kelly was a native of Co. Leitrim. He joined the Patrician Brothers in April, 1808. A journeyman-gardener, Patrick Kelly had come to Tullow from Dublin in the service of Sir Robert Doyne of St. Austin’s Abbey. In his early years Bro. Serenus Kelly suffered from ill health, not helped by the conditions under which the early Brothers lived. In 1824 he went to England and, in 1829, to France to collect money for the building of the new monastery in Tullow. In 1830 Bro. Serenus was sent by Bishop James Doyle (JKL) to England to collect money for the building of Carlow Cathedral and for Tullow Parish Church. Bro. Serenus died on 3 February 1859, aged 79, and is buried in the grounds or building of the Parish Church in Tullow.
[122] Catherine Ann Power, op. cit., p. 81; The Carlow Morning Post, 12 May 1828, advertised the sale of Judith Wogan-Browne’s house, stating that it was ‘fit for immediate reception of a family’.
[123] Delany Archive, KL/EN/064
[124] Seamus Cullen, op. cit., p. 143
[125] Delany Archive, KL/FH/0033, has a letter, dated 20 March 1839 (a month before the nuns move into Clane Convent) , from M.G. Sweetman to Bishop Haly implying that Miss Browne is due to move into Clane Convent. Margaret Gertrude Sweetman, nee Blackney, b. 1790 (app.) was a daughter of Walter Blackney b. 1714 of Ballyellen, Carlow. The Blackney family was seated in Carlow from the seventeenth to the close of the nineteeth century. They are stated to derive their descent from the Blacknies of Ricenore, Co. Dublin, who ranked among the principal gentry of that county in Tudor times. (The Irish Genealogist, Vol 3 #2, p. 44) quoted in www.susiewarren.com.au
Margaret Blackney married Michael Sweetman, b.1775
[126] Seamus Cullen, op. cit., p. 143
[127] Ibid. p. 145
[128] Bishop Francis Haly was born c.1783 in the parish of Doonane, Queen’s County (Laois). In 1807 he entered Maynooth College and was ordained priest in 1812. He served as curate in the parishes of Rathvilly and Mountrath, and in 1822 he was appointed Parish Priest of Kilcock. Haly was a cousin of Bishop Edward Nolan. On the latter’s death, Francis Haly was elected his successor in 1838. He served as Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin for seventeen years. During that time “many fine Churches were erected, and Religious Communities established, especially those whose chief work is the education of the poor”. (Comerford, Collections Vol. I, p. 144). He added a wing to Carlow College, and was instrumental in the establishment of many primary schools. He was a constant reader, especially of English authors. His extensive notebooks written in his own hand consist of quotations from the works of Robertson, Pope, Swift, Las Casas, but especially from those of Edmund Burke of whom Dr. Haly was an enthusiastic admirer. He died in 1855 and is buried in Carlow Cathedral. His extensive library was bequeathed to Carlow College.
[129] Ibid., p. 81
[130] Ann McAuliffe was born in the parish of St. Peter and Paul in Cork city in 1791. She joined the Brigidine novitiate in Tullow on 28 April, 1828, aged 37, and took the name Mother Catherine. Her mature years and excellent educational background fitted her to fulfil the Delany wish for highly qualified entrants to the Brigidines, and contributed to her influential role in the congregation. Mother Catherine was appointed Superior of Tullow Convent in 1841, and again in 1868, 1867 and 1870. She put major work into the revision of the Brigidine constitutions, consulting widely, before they were submitted to Rome for approval in 1840s. Mother Catherine was also a writer of the congregation’s annals. (Mary O’Riordan, Pathfinders, pp. 20, 25)
[131] Ibid. p.23, Reference not given
[132] Ibid. p. 23
[133] Ibid. p. 23, Reference not given
[134] St. Robert Bellarmine S.J. (1542-1621) was an Italian Cardinal, scholar and writer.
[135] Delany Archive, BC/AIr/310
[136] Delany Archive, KL/DD/12
[137] Nuns, in those days were given the title, “Mrs.” The author has not been able to trace who Lady Dalton was, or the whereabouts of her portrait. Sr. Xaviera Doyle was Judith Wogan Browne’s former maid; she had the same name in religion as one on Judith’s aunts in the Ypres Benedictine convent.
[138] Cf. Mark McLoughlin, Kildare Barracks From the Royal Field Artillery to the Irish Artillery Corps, pp. 120-136
[139] Kildare Library and History Service
[140] The close ties between Jack Wogan-Browne and his sister Claire is also shown in the following news item from the Kildare Observer 7 August 1915:
“The marriage of Mr. Francis Lillis and Miss Claire Wogan Browne took place very quietly on 31st July 1915, at the church of Our Lady of Victories, Kensington. In the absence of her father, the bride was given away by her brother, Mr. J. Wogan Browne, R.F.A”. (Courtesy of Kildare Library and Arts Services)
[141] The Clongowian, 1927, pp. 103-104
[142] Mary O’Riordan Judith Wogan-Browne (1755-1848), p.15
[143] Power, Dr Ann, The Brigidine Sisters in Ireland, America, Australia and New Zealand, 1807 – 1922
[144] Ibid. p. 15. Mary O’Riordan, op. cit. p. 16, quoting the late Fr. Burke-Savage S.J., states that a portrait of Judith Wogan-Browne was auctioned, in 1986, in Kilkenny.
[144] Hugh A. Law, Sir. Charles Wogan, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Dec. 31, 1937). p. 257
Tullow Historian 
Christopher, this is a wonderful outline of Wogan-Browne history which we will share amongst the Australian descendants of the W-Bs. Thank you.
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Thanks Yvette for your kind comments. I am delighted to make the contribution of Judith Wogan-Browne and her family more widely appreciated.
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