Carrick-on-Shannon & District Historical Society are delighted to announce their first lecture for 2012 in the Bush Hotel on Wednesday February 15th @ 8.30p.

“Bishop William Bedell (1571-1642) of Kilmore — Print, Language and Religion in the seventeenth century Ireland”. Bishop Bedell (Church of Ireland) was responsible for translating a number of documents including the Old Testament and a catechism into the Irish language.

The talk will be given by Longford native Dr Marc Caball, BA MOD, BA OXON, author of ‘Poets and Politics’. He is a senior lecturer of Arts and Celtic Studies in University College Dublin.

Caball holds a D.Phil from the University of Oxford and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has been appointed a Director of UCD Humanities Institute in Ireland. Dr Caball is chairman of the COST Domain Committee for Individuals, Cultures, Societies and Health (DC ISCH)

He is a council member of the Irish Texts Society and has published widely on the cultural history of Modern Ireland. He is co-editor with Andrew Carpenter, of Oral and Print Cultures in Ireland 1600-1900.

William Bedell was born in 1571 in Black Nolty in Essex and was educated in Cambridge where he was a pupil of William Perkins. He became a fellow of Emmanuel in 1593 and took orders in 1607. He was appointed chaplain to Sir Henry Wooton the English Ambassador of Venice. He translated the Book of Common Prayer into Italian and wrote a series of sermons with Fulgenzio Micanzio.and was appointed to the rectory of Bury St Edmonds.

In 1627 he became Provost of Trinity College Dublin. To gain the confidence of the Irish people he studied the Irish language. Despite being a Protestant, he arranged a chapter of the Irish Old Testament to be read at his dinners by a native Irish speaker and Irish prayers to be said in the Chapel.

In 1629 he was appointed to become Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh. He translated sermons and homilies and a Catechism into Irish. He was responsible for commissioning the translation of the Holy Bible into the Irish language. He made preparations for printing the work at his own house. He was horrified at the deplorable state that people were left in by the English landlords and he set out to improve the living conditions in the diocese. He encountered some opposition from Anglicans and Catholics alike for reaching out to the downtrodden Irish.

He resigned from Ardagh in 1633 and was determined to rebuild the church buildings that were neglected over the years. He was responsible for laying out the town of Virginia in Co Cavan after the landlord’s failure to build the town and provide a church.

At the time of the Irish/Catholic Rebellion in 1641 the local warlords, headed by the O’Reilly clan, took control of the area. Bedell used his Bishop’s house in Kilmore as a place of refuge for those seeking shelter from the war. When he resisted a command to hand over the refugees, he was seized and imprisoned in the castle of Loughochter. He was by repute a very scholarly and kindly man and he was held in such regard that when he was imprisoned he was not harmed. However, due to the damp conditions in the castle, he fell ill after his release and is believed to have contacted typhus.

He died on February 7th in 1642 and is buried next to his wife Leah in Kilmore. His funeral is said to have taken place in the presence of his O’Reilly captors. A large military force attended his funeral and fired a volley over his grave. At the burial a Roman Catholic priest, Fr Farrell, was heard to say “May my soul be with Bedell’s.” Bedell’s last will and testament is available through the UK National Archives.

The new Cathedral Church of Kilmore consecrated in 1860 was, according to the inscription, erected to his memory.