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Life
1568-1651; of formerly landed family in Cavan and Westmeath; wrote poetry in Irish; ed. and ord. Paris; appt. rector of the Irish College; consec. Bishop of Meath and returned to Ireland, 1622; loyal to crown; opposed Confederation of Kilkenny and was charged by Card. Rinuccini (papal nuncio) with causing enmity between Preston and O’Neill; false news of his death circulated in 1648; d. 1651.
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Commentary
Michelle O’Riordan, ‘Professors and Performers’, Irish Review, 23, Winter 1998, pp.74, quotes: depicted as one who ‘euer yett spent his time in jollitie, composing Irish reemes, more like libells than any exemplarie or vertuous myters (as the subiecte now offered), displaying therein the secret faults or private miscariage of either sex, whether right or wronge ... bearing an inueterat hatred and malice unto the Irish ...’ (quoted in J. T. Gilbert, contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, 1641-1652, vol. I, p.278.
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Notes
On hearing that the news of Dease’s death circulated in 1648 was false, Cardinal Rinuccini wrote to the Vatican that the bishop was still lived on ‘to try the patience of the good’. (See entry in Catholic Encyclopaedia [online].)
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