Thomas Croke
Thomas William Croke was the
Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Cashel and Emly in
Ireland. The main
Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in
Dublin in named
Croke Park in honour of the Archbishop Croke.
Born in Castlecor,
County Cork, in 1824 Thomas Croke was educated in Carleville in County Cork and in the Irish College in Paris. He was ordained a
priest of the Catholic Church in 1846. The Irish radical
William O'Brien said that the then Fr. Croke fought on the barricades in Paris during the 1848 revolution. He returned to Ireland, where in 1858 he became President of St.
Encyclopedia
Thomas William Croke was the
Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Cashel and Emly in
Ireland. The main
Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in
Dublin in named
Croke Park in honour of the Archbishop Croke.
Born in Castlecor,
County Cork, in 1824 Thomas Croke was educated in Carleville in County Cork and in the Irish College in Paris. He was ordained a
priest of the Catholic Church in 1846. The Irish radical
William O'Brien said that the then Fr. Croke fought on the barricades in Paris during the 1848 revolution. He returned to Ireland, where in 1858 he became President of St. Colman’s College in Fermoy,
County Cork and later he became the parish priest of Doneraile in 1865. Croke attended the First Vatican Council as the
theologian to the Bishop of Cloyne 1870. He was appointed second Bishop of
Auckland,
New Zealand, in 1870. Croke became a member of the Irish hierarchy when he became
Archbishop of Cashel, one of the four Catholic Irish archbishoprics in 1875.
Croke was a strong supporter of Irish nationalism, aligning himself with the
Land League and the chairman of the
Irish Parliamentary Party,
Charles Stewart Parnell. He also associated himself with the temperance movement of Fr. Matthew and of the
Gaelic League from its foundation in 1893. Within Catholicism he was a supporter of Gallicanism, as opposed to the Ultramontanism favoured by the Cardinal Archbishop of Dublin, Paul Cardinal Cullen.
His support of nationalism caused successive
British governments and
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland's governments in
Dublin to be deeply suspicious of him, as were some less politicially-aligned Irish bishops.
Following the scandal that erupted over Parnell's sexual relationship with Kitty O'Shea, the wife of fellow MP Captain Willie O'Shea, Archbishop Croke withdrew from active participation in nationalist politics.
He died at the Archbishop's Palace in Cashel on July 22, 1902, aged 78. In honour of Croke, his successors as Archbishop of Cashel and Emly traditionally are asked to throw in the ball at the minor
Gaelic football and
hurling All-Ireland finals.
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