Benjamin John Plunket was a 20th-century Anglican bishop in Ireland. Plunket was the son of

William Plunket, 4th Baron Plunket William Conyngham Plunket, 4th Baron Plunket (26 August 1828 – 1 April 1897) was Dean of Christ Church Cathedral and Archbishop of Dublin in the Church of Ireland. Life Born in Dublin, he was the eldest son of John Plunket, 3rd Baron Plun ...

, and

Anne Lee Guinness Anne Lee Plunket, Lady Plunket (née Guinness; 1839 – 8 November 1889) was an Irish philanthropist. Biography Anne Lee Guinness was born in 1839, and was the only daughter of Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, 1st Baronet. While her father was rest ...

(sister of the Lord Ardilaun). Born in

Bray Bray may refer to: Places France * Bray, Eure, in the Eure ''département'' * Bray, Saône-et-Loire, in the Saône-et-Loire ''département'' * Bray-Dunes, in the Nord ''département'' * Bray-en-Val, in the Loiret ''département'' * Bray-et-Lû ...

on 1 August 1870, he was educated at the

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

and

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

Ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1896, he began his career with a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are ass ...

at St Peter's

Phibsboro Phibsborough (; ), also spelled Phibsboro, is a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. The Bradogue River crosses the area in a culvert, and the Royal Canal passes through its northern reaches, nota ...

. He was then Rector of Aghade with Ardoyne and subsequently

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of St Ann's,

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. In 1913 he became

Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry The Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry is the Church of Ireland Ordinary of the united Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry in the Province of Armagh.''Crockford's Clerical Directory 2008/2009 (100th edition)'', Church House Publishing (). Th ...

, and in 1919 was

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

Bishop of Meath The Bishop of Meath is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Catholic Church it remains as a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric. History Until the ...

. He retired in 1925, and died on 26 January 1947. The ''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'', when reporting his death, characterised Plunket as ‘a Churchman of broad views … howas not afraid to utter his opinions’. Probably his most notable stand was in 1910 when, on the accession of King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

, parliament passed an act to delete terms offensive to

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

from the Royal Accession Declaration. The old Declaration, introduced in 1678, repudiated the

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

transubstantiation Transubstantiation (; Greek language, Greek: μετουσίωσις ''metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of sacramental bread, bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and ...

and the invocation of the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

and the saints. The modified form of the Declaration was widely opposed, but Plunket was the principal promoter of a petition to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in support of it, signed by over 3,000 representative Irish Protestants. On another occasion, he was one of three Church of Ireland bishops who, with eighteen Catholic bishops, signed a controversial anti-partition manifesto issued before the Longford by-election of May 1917; the manifesto was a significant factor in Sinn Féin's narrow victory in the by-election. Plunket was also an

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

enthusiast, encouraging Irish in Church of Ireland schools and hymns in Irish at church services. In 1925, while still Bishop of Meath, he was severely criticised by

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

in the latter's famous speech in the Senate on divorce. Plunket's uncompromising approach to sexual morality and the indissolubility of marriage had, as Yeats saw it, given succour to those intent on passing legislation which the Protestant minority would find oppressive. Shortly afterwards, he resigned as Bishop of Meath on health grounds when aged 55.https://blog.nli.ie/index.php/2011/10/19/bishop-plunket-yeats-and-jfk/ accessed 14Sept 2016 He was left the St. Anne's Park estate in Raheny in Dublin, formerly the residence of his uncle Lord Ardilaun, following the death of Lady Ardilaun, in 1937 due to the cost of the estate he sold it to Dublin Corporation, keeping Sybil Hill and 30 acres as his residence, his former residence is now

St. Paul's College, Raheny St Paul's College in Raheny, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, is a Roman Catholic Education in the Republic of Ireland, secondary school Single-sex education#Ireland, for boys under the trusteeship of the Vincentian Fathers, formally the ...

. In 1900 he married Dorothea Hester Butler (1874-1936), the daughter of Sir Thomas Butler, 10th Bt. Their daughter Olive married Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam in 1933.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plunket, Benjamin John People from Bray, County Wicklow People educated at Harrow School People from Raheny Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 20th-century Anglican bishops in Ireland Bishops of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry Anglican bishops of Meath Younger sons of barons

Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...

1870 births 1947 deaths Christian clergy from County Wicklow