Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

Patrick Lyons was the bishop of Kilnmo9re at the time of the immolation suffered by the girls in the Poor Clares’ Convent of February 1943.

 He was not a Cavanman, but a native of colon, Co. Louth. He was ordained for the archdiocese of |Armagh. He was appointed bishop of Kilmore in August 1937 after the death earlier that year of Bishop Finnegan.

 His response represented the chilling heartlessness o9f the time, when he spoke of ““… the terrible ordeal it has been for the good nuns to have the fierce glare of publicity turned on their quiet sheltered lives.” While barely mumbling an type of commiserations to the families of the unfortunate victims.

 In Cavan of course he was a true prince bishop. In fact, like many prelates of the time God was a mere junior colleague who lived and worked somewhere else. He had a chauffeur-driven car which was always supplied with petrol even at the height of war time shortages.

 He had access to other items beyond the purchase of most of his flock. These included oranges, which he doled out as presents to altar boys at Confirmation ceremonies throughout the diocese. There was another fire, far less serious, which affected Bishop Lyons’ Episcopal residence. In 1944 soldiers were asked to put out a fire at Cullies House. Among the items they rescued was a large crate of whiskey. Sensing that its disappearance could be blamed on the flames they consumed its contents, leading to some drunken antics observed by a then resident of the nearby St Patrick’s College Cavan.. Thus deprived of his tipple poor Bishop Lyons was unable to drown his sorrows at the defeat of the Nazis in 1945 and the death of Adolf Hitler.

 At the first public performance of the Cavan International Drama Festival in 1946 Bishop Lyons took the opportunity to express his admiration for the play “The Righteous are Bold”. What’s more he felt that it was in such plays that the “true nature of the Irish” was expressed, and not in the scribblings of disaffected degenerates (he didn’t use the term) like Joyce, Beckett et al, whom he and his cronies made sure were banned anyway.

 He died in April 1949.