Plunkett
also Plunket
Of the Pale and the saint — Saint Oliver Plunkett, the last Catholic martyr in England.
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CoreHistoric reach
The seat of Plunkett
Seat vacantChief
No chief yet. The seat awaits its first claimant — be the first to stake your name to Plunkett.
Current mission
No mission proclaimed. The chief, once seated, sets the clan’s public focus — a campaign, a contest, a piece of restoration, a year of remembrance.
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Stake your name →What does the Plunkett name mean?
Anglo-Norman, from le Plonquet — diminutive of plonque, 'a small piece of wood' or 'a stake', though the etymology is contested. A French Norman family, settled in England by the early 12th century, who came to Ireland with the late-Plantagenet Anglo-Norman migrations of the 13th century. The Plunketts settled principally in north Leinster — Meath, Louth and the northern Pale — where they remained one of the most consistent of the 'Old English' Catholic Anglo-Norman families through the early modern period.
The history of Plunkett
The Plunketts established themselves in north Leinster from the mid-13th century and rose to baronial status — the baronies of Killeen, Dunsany and Louth all in Plunkett hands by the 15th century. Three brothers of the family, all consecrated bishops in the 17th century, are the central figures of Plunkett history.
Saint Oliver Plunkett (1625–1681) — Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1669 — was the last Catholic martyred in England. Caught in the hysteria of the Popish Plot of 1678, he was tried at Westminster on entirely fabricated charges of conspiring with the French, refused to plead guilty in exchange for exile, and was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 1 July 1681. He was canonised in 1975 — the first new Irish saint in seven centuries. His preserved head, taken from the quartered body by the priest who attended him at his execution, is held in a glass reliquary at St Peter's Church in Drogheda.
Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916), the poet and one of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, was executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol on 4 May 1916, hours after marrying Grace Gifford in the prison chapel. The wedding-and-execution remains among the most affecting episodes of the 1916 Rising and is the basis of the Wolfe Tones song Grace.
Notable bearers of the Plunkett name
- Saint Oliver Plunkett (1625–1681) — Archbishop of Armagh, last Catholic martyr in England
- Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916) — poet, signatory of the 1916 Proclamation
- Sir Horace Plunkett (1854–1932) — agricultural reformer, founder of the IAOS co-operative movement