Career
The origin of the Nag"s Head Fable has been traced to him. His family, which draws its name from Holywood, a village near Dublin, had long been distinguished both in Church and State. In 1598 he was sent to Ireland, but was arrested on his way and confined in the Gatehouse Prison, the Tower of London and Wisbech Castle, and was eventually shipped to the continent after the death of Queen Elizabeth.
He then resumed his interrupted journey and reached Ireland on Saint Patrick"s Eve, 1604.
One of which included the first allegation of an indecent consecration of archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker. This became known as the Nag"s Head Fable and the story was not discredited in the eyes of some Roman Catholics for centuries.
He was soon appointed superior of the Jesuits in Ireland, a post of great importance in the absence of all Roman Catholic bishops, for it had been impossible during the Reformation to preserve their succession. Father Holywood and his fellow Jesuits had their hands full of work.
Though there were only four Jesuits in Ireland when he landed, their number rapidly increased, and there were forty-two when he died, besides sixty others in training or occupied in teaching on the continent.
After the imposition of the Oath of Allegiance there followed a persecution. Holywood continued to do his work. At Kilkenny, for instance, a school which lasted until Oliver Cromwell"s time was begun in 1619.
Holywood"s last report is for the year 1624.
He died on 4 September 1626.