Thomas O'Herlahy

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Thomas O'Herlahy (also O'Herlihy or O'Hiarlaithe) died in 1579 and was the Catholic Bishop of Ross in Ireland (Rosscarbery). His kinsman Dermot O'Hurley would become Archbishop of Cashel and is remembered as one of the Irish Catholic Martyrs. Dermot is believed to have been educated at a cathedral school overseen by Bishop O'Herlahy and may have been fostered in a monastery founded by Saint Ailbe of Emly.

O'Herlahy was consecrated bishop around 1560 and was one of only three Irish bishops to attend the Council of Trent. He tried to enforce its decrees but fled with his chaplain to a small island. There he was betrayed to John Perrot, the President of Munster, and was sent in chains to the Tower of London. He was kept with Archbishop Richard Creagh and was released after about three years and seven months thanks to the protection of Cormac Laidir, Chief of the MacCarthy of Muskerry.

The bishop planned to retire to Flanders, but ill health from prison forced him to return to Ireland. He was captured in Dublin but released after showing his discharge papers, and he went to Muskerry under the MacCarthy’s protection. He preferred a simple life on a small farm to lavish hospitality. He visited his diocese yearly and, on great feast days, preached in a nearby church. He suffered from dropsy but lived to about his 60s or 70s and was buried at Kilcrea Friary, County Cork.