Life
1130-1180 [var. 1128]; b. Leinster; ed. Glendalough, abbot at 25; first
archbishop of Dublin, 1162; treated with Strongbow, 1170; lead army which
recaptured Dublin; submitted to Henry I171; Counsel of Windsor, representing
Roderic ‘Connor, 1175; Third Laterna Council, Rome, 1179; made papal
legate; embassy for O’Connor in England, 1180; denied permission
to return to Ireland by Henry; died Eu, in Normandy, seeking King’s
permission to return; canonised 1226 (Feast Day 14 Nov.) ODNB DIB OCIL
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Criticism
Canon John O’Hanlon, The Life of St. Laurence O’Toole, Archbishop
of Dublin (Dublin: J. Mullany 1857); Desmond Forristal, The Man
in the Middle: St Laurence O’Toole:Patron Saint of Dublin (Dublin:
Veritas 1988), 95pp.
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Commentary
John D’Alton, History of the Archbishops of Dublin,
‘Laurence O’Toole’, quoted in Cabinet of Irish Literature,
ed., Charles Reade (1867), Vol. III: ‘In 1167 he assisted the council
which King Roderic convened at Athboy, and which, in the mixed grades
of those who attended it, greatly resembled a Saxon wittenagemote. ...
The Political object of this assembly was to obtain more indisputable
acknowledgements of the sovereignty of Roderic, and to calculate what
aid and support he might expect in case of the then expected invasion
of Dermot Mac Murrough’s auxiliaries. [.../] Upon the first invasion
of the Welsh adventurers he adhered firmly to the independence of his
country, and encouraged the inhabitants of Dublin to a vigorous defence
against the invaders; they, however, daunted by the martial appearance
and disciplined array of Strongbow’s forces before their walls, entreated
the prelate to become a mediator of a peace, to effectuate which he passed
out into the lines of the besiegers; but while the terms of surrender
were yet under discussion, Raymond le Gros and Milo de Cogan, with a party
of young and fiery spirits, scaled the walls, and at once possessed themselves
of the city with frightful carnage.’ (End; p. 213.)
S. C Hughes, The Church of S. Werburgh Dublin (1899), writes: ‘following 1172, when the English were permanently settled in Dublin, which was permanently assigned by Henry II in a Charter of that year to a colony from Bristol. Some time within the next seven years the colonists built first Church of S. Werburgh, for it is mentioned among Dublin Churches in the Bull ‘Cum teneamus’, obtained from Alexander III, by Archbishop O’Toole at the Lateran Council in 1179.’ (p.10)
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Notes
Portrait: There is a bronze head by Melanie le Brocquy.
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