Exciting exhibition on Longford's Edgeworth family to take place in Paris

Plans are progressing positively for a special exhibition on the Edgeworth family and Abbé Henry Edgeworth to be held in Paris next June at one of the most prestigious universities in the French capital.

Edgeworthstown has a close connection with the history of Paris and the Notre Dame Cathedral, which reopened on Sunday after five years of intense restoration works following a devastating fire, which decimated the landmark in April 2019.

Chairperson of the Maria Edgeworth Centre, Matt Farrell said they are keen to recognise and celebrate the link between Edgeworthstown, Paris and Notre Dame Cathedral.

"There are plans for an exhibition on the Edgeworth family and Abbé Henry Edgeworth to be held at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, which is the most prestigious university in the centre of Paris so that is something that is exciting that we are looking forward to,” he added.

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Mr Farrell said they are working in conjunction with Longford County Council to organise the event.

"We have a lady in Paris at the moment doing a lot of research on Abbé Edgeworth and his family.

"His sister and his mother were in prison during the French Revolution," the Chairperson of the Maria Edgew orth Centre added.

Mr Farrell hopes people from county Longford will travel to Paris.

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"The Irish community in Paris, the Ireland-French network of people working in Paris, they will be attending as well," he said.

"We are working away on it at the moment."

Mr Farrell said, in the late 18th Century, Abbé Henry Edgeworth, from Edgeworthstown, a cousin of the famous novelist and writer Maria Edgeworth, played a "pivotal role in the history of the cathedral".

Henry Edgeworth was born in St John's Rectory in Edgeworthstown, County Longford in 1745.

However, when his father, the Church of Ireland rector of Edgeworthstown surprisingly decided to convert to Catholicism, the family moved to Toulouse in France where Henry was raised.

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Henry studied for the priesthood and was ordained as a Catholic priest in Paris.

The fire was not the only threat the cathedral faced in its lifetime.

During the French Revolution in 1789, Notre Dame was seized and made public property.

In 1790 the Paris Commune removed bronze, lead, precious metals, statue, art and artefacts from the cathedral.

Most of the metal was melted down and the silver used for coinage.

It was during this period that Abbé Edgeworth was called upon to play a major role in the life of Paris and the Cathedral.

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In the absence of the archbishop of Paris, due to the threat of death, the Irish clergyman was vested with the powers of the archbishop and appointed vicar general of the great diocese of Paris in 1792.

All of the responsibilities and authorities of the archbishop were vested in Abbé Edgeworth.

He went on to be confessor to Louis XVI and administered the last rites to the king on the scaffold in 1794.

This was a very dangerous time to be a catholic priest in Paris and his friends encouraged him to flee, but he expressed his thoughts in a letter to a fellow priest in exile.

"Almighty God has battled my measures, and ties me this land of horrors by chains I have not the liberty to shake off,” he outlined.

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"The case is this: The wretched master [the king] charges me not to quit this country, as I am the priest whom he intends to prepare him for death.

"And should the iniquity of the nation commit this last act of cruelty, I must also prepare myself for death, as I am convinced the popular rage will not allow me to survive an hour after the tragic scene; but I am resigned,” Abbé Edgeworth wrote.

"Could my life save him I would willingly lay it down, and I should not die in vain,” the priest concluded.

Abbé Edgeworth went on to administer the last rites to Louis XIV on the guillotine and later, in exile remained faithful to the Royal Family dying in Mitau, now Jelgava in Latvia in 1807.

The life and times of the Abbé Edgeworth which includes biographies, letters and portraits form part of the wonderful Maria Edgeworth Centre in Edgeworthstown.