ST. LAURENCE O’TOOLE

LAURENCE 0’TOOLE

• Feast Day: November 14th • Place of Birth: Mullaghcreelan between Castledermot

and Kilkea• Year of Birth: 1128• Father: Murtagh O’Toole, chieftain of the

southern half of present Co. Kildare, an area then called Hy Murray.

• Mother: Dervail O’Byrne, daughter of a local chieftain.

• Family: 8 children, one daughter and seven sons. Laurence was youngest son.

• Famous Relation: Mor, his sister married Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster.

DERMOT MAC MURROUGH

Dermot Mac Murrough was famous because he invited the Normans such as Strongbow to Ireland in 1169. Dermot was a large, violent, cruel, war loving man hated by strangers and feared by his own people.

LAURENCE’S YOUNG DAYS

• Maurice O’ Toole was not on friendly terms with Donagh O’Connor, chieftain of Offaly.• To ensure both families got on well together,

baby Laurence was sent to live with Donagh O’Connor and his family.• This was an old Irish custom.• It was known as Fosterage.

LAURENCE AS A HOSTAGE

• Laurence was 10 in 1138.• His father, as only a local chieftain, had to obey

Dermot Mac Murrough, King of Leinster.• Dermot demanded a hostage from him.• Maurice gave him his son Laurence as a hostage.• For a time Laurence lived in Dermot’s castle, until

the day his father refused to obey an order from Dermot.• Then Laurence was forced to live in a dilapidated,

leaky hut on only enough bread, greens and water to keep him alive for 2 years.

THE RESCUE

• Laurence was 12 in 1140.• The Bishop of Glendalough helped Dermot and

Laurence’s father to come to an agreement.• Dermot agreed to exchange Laurence for 12 of

his own soldiers who had been captured by Laurence’s father Maurice O’Toole.• The exchange took place in Glendalough

Monastery in Co. Wicklow.• St. Kevin founded this monastery centuries

earlier.

LAURENCE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN

• In 1162 he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin.• He oversaw the building of many churches, most

importantly Christ Church Cathedral,• He never ate meat and fasted every Friday on

bread and water.• Every day he fed 30 people at his table.• Sometimes he had over 300 orphans to look

after.• He was a peacemaker, he tried to arrange peace

between Irish, Vikings and Normans in Dublin.

THE NORMANS

• Remember Dermot Mc Murrough King of Leinster had asked Henry the Second King of England and Normandy (part of France) to send Normans like Strongbow to Ireland.• Dermot wanted Henry to help him fight his great

enemy Rory O’Connor High King of Ireland.• He promised Strongbow his daughter Aoife in

marriage and he would become King of Leinster when he died.

LAURENCE ABBOT OF GLENDALOUGH

• Maurice was so delighted to have Laurence back, he agreed to send one of his sons there to be educated.• Laurence agreed to go to school in Glendalough.• He later became a monk there.• In 1158 he was elected Abbot of Glendalough by the

monks.• This meant he was in charge of the monastery.• During a famine in that part of Wicklow, he fed the

hungry who were starving.• In the monastery, he had to run a school, orphanage

and hospital.

THE NORMANS ATTACKDUBLIN

• In 1170 Dermot and Normans led by Strongbow attacked Dublin.• Despite the presence nearby of the High King of

Ireland Rory O’Connor with an army of 30,000 men, Dublin was captured by the Normans.• Laurence rallied the people in vain to resist the

Normans.• He pleaded with the Normans to have pity on the

people of Dublin. • Despite his efforts, 700 men, women and children

were slaughtered.

THE IRISH ATTEMPT TO RECAPTURE DUBLIN

• Rory O’Connor High King of Ireland joins forces with other Irish chieftains and attacks the Normans in Dublin.

• Laurence O’Toole is said to have organised this.• The Normans in Dublin sent him to negotiate peace

with Rory.• Rory with his large army was in no mood to

negotiate.• Alas 600 Normans launched a surprise attack on the

Irish and drove his pooly armed soldiers into headlong flight.

• Strongbow and the Normans kept control of Dublin.• Rory O’Connor was the last Ard Ri na hEireann High

King of Ireland.

THE GOOD OF HIS PEOPLE

• Laurence saw that the Normans could not be defeated.• When Henry the 2nd came to Dublin in 1171

Laurence accepted him as his overlord.• On Christmas Day 1171 Henry attended mass in

Christ Church Cathedral.

VISIT TO CANTERBURY IN ENGLAND

• In 1175 he went to Canterbury to meet Henry.• As he was offering mass in Canterbury, a maniac,

who had heard of his piety (holiness), wanted to make a martyr of St Laurence.• He smashed him in the head with a heavy stick.• Everyone present concluded he was dead.• But he came around a short while later and asked

for a bowl of water which he blessed and asked that his wounds be washed with it.• The blood stopped immediately and he got up

and said mass.• When he died 5 years later in France, the fracture

was to be seen in his neck.

VISIT TO ROME

• In 1179 St. Laurence and six other Irish bishops went to Rome.• He met Pope Alexander the 3rd.• He gave the Pope an account of the state of

affairs in Ireland.• The Pope appointed him Papal Legate in Ireland.

HIS FINAL DAYS

• In 1180 Laurence went to England to see Henry.• Rory O’Connor the last High King of Ireland, asked him

to settle a dispute between him and Henry 2nd.• Henry refused to meet him and took himself off to

Normandy in France.• For three weeks Laurence waited in England for Henry

to return, but in vain.• Laurence decided to follow him to France.• In France he contracted a fever.• He kept travelling until he came to the Abbey of Eu.• Here after three days, he died on Friday 14th

November.• He was just 52.• Laurence was buried at Eu.

REMINDERS OF LAURENCE IN CASTLDERMOT

• A panel in the rose window in the Church of the Assumption, Castledermot. • A stained glass window in Kilkea Church which

also comemmorates the saint.• Levitstown Church is dedicated to Saint Laurence.

SOUTH KILDARE (HY-MURRAY) AFTER LAURENCE’S DEATH.

• Strongbow granted the territory of Hy-Murray to Walter de Riddlesford, one of his knights,• Strongbow, perhaps, considered he had a right to

this district.• His wife Aoife was grand-daughter of O’Toole, and

niece of St. Laurence O’Toole.