The Irish took to their hearts the Franciscans: they also of course had Dominican foundations, but the Franciscans were deeply popular and took over many of, so to speak, the social and religious positions of the pre-English clergy; and when push came to shove, with the Protestant reformation in Ireland, the Franciscans and the Irish hereditary learned-classes formed the backbone of religious and cultural resistance to the new order.

And the speed with which they organised their reaction to the Protestant reformation, the speed with which they got the counter-reformation up-and-running in Ireland, and the success with which they carried out the operation, is impressive. They succeeded in doing what was not done elsewhere in Europe - they created a kingdom that differed in religion from its Sovereign, and that is perhaps the unique achievement of the Irish clergy and especially the Franciscans in the Elizabethan period.