Some years ago Cavan County Museum published a book of their collection of banners, entitled Banner, Emblem, Flag or Symbol: The Marching Banners of Cavan County Museum. It includes this one, of Killmore Royal Black Preceptory RBP No 362, Bedell's Mourners.
Bishop William Bedell (1571-1642; Wikipedia here) is best remembered for translating the Old Testament into Irish during his time as Bishop of Kilmore and Armagh (William O'Donnell had already produced a translation of the New Testament, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I, and completed in 1602, with 500 copies printed - further information here from the 400th anniversary in 2002).
For all of the praise the Bedell translation receives, few ever mention what he experienced at the hands of Irish 'rebels' in 1641, and his death from the pestilence which swept Ulster (see previous post here) due to the piles of unburied corpses.
His life story was written by the Scotsman Bishop Gilbert Burnet in 1685, who became one of the closest allies of Prince William of Orange, and was with him when he landed at Brixham in 1688.
PS: around the same time as Bedell's 1634-40 translation into Irish Gaeilge, just across the water in Scotland translations into Scottish Ghàidhlig emerged. These were by Alexander Munro (1605-53) of Durness, who had been converted to the reformed faith under the preaching of exiled Edinburgh minister Rev Robert Bruce, and have been colloquially called Sandy Monroe's Verses. In 1685 around 80 copies of Bedell's translation were sent to the Scottish Highlands for use in parishes there (see here for more info), but they had limited relevance due to the linguistic differences.
• James Seaton Reid's account of Bedell's life and death is here from page 320 onwards. On the preceding pages, Reid includes a mind-boggling list of ministers and clergy who were all killed by 'rebels' and the barbaric methods used – as well as a list of 20 other ministers who all died of the same 'pestilential fever' that took Bedell.
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