This article is from page 12 of the 2014-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
THE auction of the year was to have been the sale of the correspondence between Jackie Kennedy and a priest in All Hallows College in Dublin, but they were withdrawn at the 11th hour because a dispute over their ownership.
Now, the seminary which is closing has come back for more with another auction that will take place over three days, with one of the lots providing an historic link with Clare.
It’s contained the collection of art that will go under the hammer at Sheppards Auctioneers from Durrow in Laois – a portrait of the Clareborn Archbishop of Perth Patrick Joseph Clune.
Archbishop Clune was born in Ruan in 1864, educated at St Flannan’s College and All Hallows College. He was ordained a priest in 1886 before his first appointment was to St Patrick’s College in New South Wales.
From there he rose through the ranks of the Church and became Bishop of Perth in 1911 before being elevated to archbishopric in 1913, a position he held until his death in 1935.
Though he lived nearly all of his adult life in Australia, Archbishop Clune was given a key part to play in War of Independence in Ireland when British Prime Minister, Lloyd George turned to the Ruan man to act as a mediator with Irish leaders to secure a cessation of violence.
This was despite the fact that at the time Archbishop Clune made no secret of the fact that he was a keen supporter of the Sinn Féin movement. “I admire their gallantry. When Mr Lloyd George termed them assassins I was content to reply to him: ‘No not murderers but the cream of their race’,” he said.
Archbishop Clune’s portrait is one of 14 ecclesiastical paintings that will go under the hammer in the highly anticipated auction and could fetch up to € 2, 500.