Butler v. Moore reported in MacNally's Rules of Evidence, [1802], 253, was an Irish case decided by the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Sir Michael Smith. It is an important precedent in the issue of priest-penitent privilege in the UK. The case concerned the will of Bishop John Butler, 12th Baron Dunboyne, who had converted from Catholicism to Protestantism. He was alleged, however, to have returned to Catholicism and, thereby, to have come within a penal law which deprived "lapsed papists" of the power to make a will. [1]
Butler was Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork at the time of the death of his nephew Piers Edmond Butler, the 11th Baron. Anxious to be able to transmit in a direct line the peerage and the headship of an ancient house, the new Lord Dunboyne appealed to the Pope for a dispensation from his vow of celibacy. It was refused him, and, thereupon, he became a Protestant and married, but had no issue. It is said that one day while he was driving along a country road a woman rushed out of a cottage, calling for a priest for someone who lay dangerously ill inside. Lord Dunboyne answered her "I am a priest", and, entering the cottage, he heard the dying person's confession. From that moment till the end of his life he conformed again, at least, privately, to the Catholic faith. [1]
His will left all his property to the trustees of the recently founded St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. The will was disputed by his sister, Mrs. Catherine O'Brien Butler, on the ground that, having reconverted to Catholicism, he was incapable of making one. In order to prove that fact, she administered interrogatories to the highly respected priest Father William Gahan, who had attended Lord Dunboyne, with whom he had maintained a long and friendly correspondence, shortly before his death, to the following effect: What religion did Lord Dunboyne profess, first, from 1783 to 1792? and, second, at the time of his death, and a short time before? As to the first question, Fr. Gahan answered that Lord Dunboyne professed the Protestant religion. To the second question he demurred on the ground that his knowledge (if any) arose from a confidential communication made to him in the exercise of his clerical functions, which the principles of his religion forbade him to disclose, nor was he bound by the law of the land to answer. The Master of the Rolls held, after argument by counsel, that there was no privilege, and he overruled the demurrer. Fr. Gahan adhered to his refusal to answer and he was adjudged guilty of contempt of court and was briefly imprisoned. [1] This did not end the litigation which went on until 1808, and resulted in a compromise.
This authority was decisively rejected by the President of the High Court of Ireland in 1945 in Cook v Carroll, where he found that a priest has an absolute privilege not to reveal what is said in the confessional. [2]
Baron Dunboyne was a title first held by the Petit family some time after the Norman invasion of Ireland.
St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth, is the "National Seminary for Ireland", and a pontifical university, located in the town of Maynooth, 24 km (15 mi) from Dublin, Ireland.
Confederate Ireland, also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation, was a period of Irish Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1649, during the Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry, clergy and military leaders after the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the Confederates controlled up to two-thirds of Ireland from their base in Kilkenny; hence it is sometimes called the "Confederation of Kilkenny".
The Protestant Ascendancy, also known simply as the Ascendancy, was the political, economic, and social domination of Ireland between the 17th century and the early 20th century by a minority of landowners, Protestant clergy, and members of the professions, all members of the Established Church. The Ascendancy excluded other groups from politics and the elite, most numerous among them Roman Catholics but also members of the Presbyterian and other Protestant denominations, along with non-Christians such as Jews, until the Reform Acts (1832–1928).
In the Catholic Church, the Seal of Confession is the absolute duty of priests or anyone who happens to hear a confession not to disclose anything that they learn from penitents during the course of the Sacrament of Penance (confession). Even where the seal of confession does not strictly apply – where there is no specific serious sin confessed for the purpose of receiving absolution – priests have a serious obligation not to cause scandal by the way they speak.
The clergy–penitent privilege, clergy privilege, confessional privilege, priest–penitent privilege, pastor–penitent privilege, clergyman–communicant privilege, or ecclesiastical privilege, is a rule of evidence that forbids judicial inquiry into certain communications between clergy and members of their congregation. This rule recognises certain communication as privileged and not subject to otherwise obligatory disclosure; for example, this often applies to communications between lawyers and clients. In many jurisdictions certain communications between a member of the clergy of some or all religious faiths and a person consulting them in confidence are privileged in law. In particular, Catholics, Lutherans and Anglicans, among adherents of other Christian denominations, confess their sins to priests, who are unconditionally forbidden by Church canon law from making any disclosure, a position supported by the law of many countries, although in conflict with civil (secular) law in some jurisdictions. It is a distinct concept from that of confidentiality.
Ignatius John O'Brien, 1st Baron Shandon,, known as Sir Ignatius O'Brien, Bt, between 1916 and 1918, was an Irish lawyer and politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland between 1913 and 1918.
The doctrine of priest–penitent privilege does not appear to apply in English law. The orthodox view is that under the law of England and Wales privileged communication exists only in the context of legal advice obtained from a professional adviser. A statement of the law on priest–penitent privilege is contained in the nineteenth century case of Wheeler v. Le Marchant:
In the first place, the principle protecting confidential communications is of a very limited character. ... There are many communications, which, though absolutely necessary because without them the ordinary business of life cannot be carried on, still are not privileged. ... Communications made to a priest in the confessional on matters perhaps considered by the penitent to be more important than his life or his fortune, are not protected.
R v Hay (1860) was an English robbery trial argued by R.S. Nolan as suggesting a narrow priest-peninent privilege in England and Wales exists, such that the court did not require the priest to disclose any conversation which may have occurred, but on the facts of the case, imprisoned him for not stating who handed a stolen item to him by way of restitution to the victim of a robbery, the priest not having denied he knew the identity of the person who handed it to him.
The doctrine of priest–penitent privilege does not apply in the UK. Before the Reformation, England was a Roman Catholic country and the Seal of the Confessional had great authority in the English courts. However, the Reformation was followed by a period of, often fierce, persecution of Catholics.
Irish Catholic Martyrs were 24 Irish men and women who have been beatified or canonized for dying for their Catholic faith between 1537 and 1681 in Ireland. The canonisation of Oliver Plunkett in 1975 brought an awareness of the others who died for the Catholic faith in the 16th and 17th centuries. On 22 September 1992 Pope John Paul II proclaimed a representative group from Ireland as martyrs and beatified them.
William Maziere Brady (1825–1894) was an Irish priest, ecclesiastical historian and journalist who converted to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism.
Events from the year 1787 in Ireland.
John Butler, 12th Baron Dunboyne was an Irish clergyman and aristocrat, Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork and Ross. In order to advance his temporal title and marry he became, as of 2004, the only authenticated apostate in the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland
William Gahan was an Irish priest and author.
Francis Moylan (1735–1815) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork, having first served as Bishop of Bishop of Ardfert and Aghadoe in Kerry.
Arthur Wolfe, 1st Viscount Kilwarden was an Anglo-Irish peer, politician and judge, who held office as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was assassinated during the Irish rebellion of 1803.
Sir Michael Smith, 1st Baronet (1740–1808) was an Irish judge. He was the founder of a judicial dynasty, several of whose members were noted for eccentricity. He was also the first of the Cusack-Smith baronets of Tuam.
Sir Edward Sullivan, 1st Baronet, PC (Ire) was an Irish lawyer, and a Liberal Member of Parliament for Mallow, 1865–1870 in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also Solicitor General for Ireland, 1865–1866, Attorney General for Ireland, 1868, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, 1870. Created a baronet, 29 December 1881, from 1883 to 1885 he was Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Sir John Meade, 1st Baronet (1642–1707) was an Irish barrister, judge and politician. He was the first of the Meade Baronets of Balintubber, and an ancestor of the Earls of Clanwilliam. He was unusual among the lawyers of his time for his lack of ambition to become a judge of the High Court, despite being generally regarded as a barrister of "excellent parts (qualities)". In matters of religion, he seems to have been, by the standards of his time, a man of very tolerant views: although he was himself a Protestant, he damaged his career by marrying Elizabeth Butler, who was a Roman Catholic, as his third wife.