Having set out from Rathmullen on 14 September 1607, O’Neill and his followers arrived in Rome on 29 April 1608. The party was received with full honours by Pope Paul V and was given prominence at civil and religious events in the city. O’Neill, together with his son-in-law and six other nobles of his party, were given the particular honour of carrying the canopy in the Corpus Christi procession on 5 June 1608. Tadhg Ó Cianáin’s contemporary diary of the event records that: “The Italians were greatly surprised that they should be shown such deference and respect, for some of them said that seldom before was any one nation in the world appointed to carry the canopy. With the ambassadors of all the Catholic kings and princes of Christendom who happened to be in the city at that time it was an established custom that they, in succession, every year got their opportunity to carry the canopy. They were jealous, envious, and surprised that they were not allowed to carry it on that particular day.”
Former Taoiseach Mr Bertie Ahern TD launched Tadhg Ó Cianáin’s diary in Dublin Castle on 21 November 2007. The diary is now available, along with its translation, in the publications section of www.irishcollege.org.
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