The exilic burial place of a Gaelic Irish community at San Pietro in Montorio, Rome

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a survey of the funerary monuments and burial vault of an exiled community of Gaelic Irish who were interred (1608-23) at San Pietro in Montorio, Rome. The site of their burial and commemoration had an eventful history that resulted in loss, fragmentation and alteration of the ledgers of elite members of the group, including those of the respective chiefs and earls of the Ulster lordships of Tyrone and Tyrconnell in Ireland. The original form and layout of the ledgers and their inscriptions is proposed and they are examined in the context of their setting in a Franciscan church patronized by Philip III of Spain. The ledger inscriptions commemorate both the suffering and Counter-Reformation confessional identity of the Gaelic Irish as Catholic exiles. They indicate tension between the complex political circumstances of the exiles' lives in Rome and a concern to provide an appropriate burial site publicly reflecting their status and piety.