Galway Cathedral has been gifted a unique painting from Hungary that speaks to the persecution of Catholicism in Ireland by the English State. The gift is also representative of how the European mainland helped keep the Faith alive across the centuries in the countries that now constitute the UK and Republic of Ireland, by providing refuge to Catholics forced to flee for their beliefs.
The painting known as the “Irish Madonna" was taken from Clonfert Cathedral in Galway 350 years ago by Bishop Walter Lynch after he was exiled during the Cromwellian dispossession of Ireland.
