Nicholas Plunkett

Sir Nicholas Plunkett (1602–1680) was the son of Christopher Plunkett, 9th Baron Killeen and Jane (or Genet) Dillon, daughter of Sir Lucas Dillon. His brother Luke was created Earl of Fingall in 1628. At the age of twenty Plunkett traveled to London to receive training as a lawyer at Gray's Inn in London, and later trained at King's Inn in Dublin. By the 1630s he had established a thriving legal practice: the attempts by Thomas Wentworth, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to confiscate as much Irish land as possible to the Crown, ensured that his services were in high demand. At this time he also became an MP in the Irish House of Commons, sitting for Meath.

At the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Plunkett attempted to remain neutral. However, in mid-1642 government troops looted and torched his home in Balrath, County Meath: Plunkett unsurprisingly thereafter gave support to the leaders of the Irish Insurgents. He played a prominent role in the foundation of the Confederation of Kilkenny, sitting as chairman at the first meeting of the Confederate Assembly and was also a member of the Confederate Supreme Council (one of six members representing the province of Leinster). Plunkett was also appointed Muster-Master general.

In 1644 Plunkett was a member of a Confederate delegation sent to negotiate a treaty with King Charles I. The first Ormond Peace was eventually arranged in 1646, but despite Plunkett's efforts the Catholic Clergy of Ireland rejected the treaty.

Plunkett was a deeply religious man, who impressed the Papal Nuncio, Rinuccini after his arrival in Ireland in late 1645. Even so, Plunkett was a moderate by disposition, and he thus became a leader of the moderate Confederate faction, attempting in 1647 to reconcile the supporters of Ormond and those of Rinuccini. In 1648 he once again took part in a Confederate delegation, this time to Rome, in an attempt to gain further Papal support. The Pope made Plunkett a knight of the Golden Spur, but the mission to Rome was largely a failure.

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