Large crowds are expected in Drogheda this Sunday afternoon, July 6, to witness the pageantry of ‘The Saint Oliver Procession’, concluding with the celebration of Mass.

This annual procession will make its way from Holy Family Church at 3.00 o’clock and cross the River Boyne moving from the Diocese of Meath to the Archdiocese of Armagh, arriving at Saint Peter’s Church in West Street, where Mass will be concelebrated at the national shrine of Saint Oliver at 4.00pm.

Archbishop Martin, the 23rd successor to Saint Oliver as Archbishop of Armagh, will be the chief celebrant and homilist at the Mass.

Saint Peter’s Church is the location of the National Shrine and memorial church of Saint Oliver Plunkett where his head and some bone-relics are preserved for veneration by the faithful.

Saint Oliver Plunkett (1 November 1625 – 1 July 1681) was the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. While 2025 is a special anniversary year, nonetheless each year celebrations commemorating Saint Oliver take place at his birthplace in front of the ruins of the old church at Loughcrew, Oldcastle, Co Meath; at his shrine in Drogheda, Co Louth, and at other places associated with him throughout Ireland and the world.

Having studied at the Irish College in Rome and worked at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, in 1669 he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh by Pope Clement IX.

Archbishop Oliver Plunkett maintained his duties in Ireland in the face of persecution and was arrested and tried for treason in London. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 1 July 1681. He became the last Catholic martyr to die in England.

Oliver Plunkett was beatified in 1920 and canonised by Saint Pope Paul VI in 1975 – the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.