Reference style The Most Reverend Spoken styles Grace, Archbishop | Died February 1653 | |
Hugh O'Reilly (Irish: Aodh Ó Raghallaigh; c.1581–1653) was an Irish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Kilmore from 1625 to 1628 and Archbishop of Armagh from 1628 to 1653.
He was the son of Maolmórdha Mac Aodh Ó Raghallaigh of the principal family of the petty kingdom of East Breifne – the O'Reillys. He was eligible for election to the chieftainship under the system of deirbhfhine.
Career
He was appointed Bishop of Kilmore on 9 June 1625, and consecrated at St Peter's Church, Drogheda by Archbishop Thomas Fleming of Dublin in July 1625. Three years later, he was translated to the Metropolitan see of Armagh as archbishop and primate by three consistorial acts: dated 5 May, 31 July, and 31 August 1628.
O'Reilly in perhaps most famous for calling a synod of bishops at Kells, County Meath in March 1642 to discuss the ongoing Irish Rebellion of 1641. The synod called for an end to the killing of unarmed civilians and robberies, and most considered that the aims of the conflict in support of Catholic rights and King Charles amounted to a just war. A smaller group of clergy met with the Catholic nobility at Kilkenny from May 1642, resulting in the founding of the Irish Confederacy later that year, which O'Reilly supported for the rest of his life.
He died in office in February 1653, aged 72, and was buried on Trinity Island in Lough Oughter, the southern part of the Lough Erne complex.