New Pope Leo XIV visits Ireland (2005)

We have over 14 million pages in our archive now of Irish newspapers spanning more than 250 years. It is always interesting to search for something obscure and see if there is a ‘hit’. So with the news of the week coming from the Vatican, today’s blog post is about a search for the name ‘Robert Prevost’. Of course, two days ago on 8 May Prevost was elected as the 267th Pope and head of the Catholic Church.

 And would you believe it….The Irish Newspaper Archive returns information on the visit of then Prior of the Augustinian Order, Robert Prevost to Fethard, county Tipperary in 2005!

The Nationalist and Munster Advertiser has the answer in their 16 July 2005 edition:

The largest gathering ever of Augustinians took place in Fethard Abbey on Wednesday evening 28th June when over 70 friars broke from their week long Province Chapter being held at Limerick University and visited Fethard with the General of the Augustinian Order. Fr Robert Prevost, originally from Canada and now based at St. Monica's Curia, Rome.

Chapters are held every four years to deliberate the life and work of the Irish Augustinians here in Ireland and in their overseas missions in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ecuador and friars also work in USA, Canada, Australia and England….The Augustinians are this year celebrating 700 years in Fethard.

So when the Papal visit comes to Ireland at some future date we can say that Robert Prevost is returning!

For more information search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )