Atherton Chicken Thighs and Whispers

Here is a simple and delicious way of fixing chicken thighs. Brighten up any holiday gathering! This is to honor a long forgotten Irish Bishop John Atherton. Find out his story in a short article after the recipe.

Chicken thighs, mushrooms and garlic in a creamy sauce! This is sure to impress!

Ingredients:
3 boneless/ skinless chicken thighs:

For Mushroom Sauce:

• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup sliced brown mushrooms
• ½ cup light cream or reduced fat cream

½ cup dried cranberries

Directions:

Before cooking, salt and pepper the chicken and allow to stand 30 minutes at room temperature.

Cut up the garlic. Be sure to pry out any green parts, they are very bitter. Also rinse and drain the mushrooms.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of oil in and swirl to coat. Lay the chicken into the pan away from you, cook 5 minutes on each side or until browned.

Remove the chicken and tent with foil to keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium-low; add 2 tablespoons of butter, and the mix of mushrooms and garlic. Stir this well. Add the balsamic vinegar and scrape up any brown parts left in bottom of pan. You will want this to flavor your sauce. Cooking for a further 1-2 minutes, or until the you start smelling the garlic.

Stir in the cream until well mixed. Place the chicken back in the pan and cover. Reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in the cranberries just before pulling the chicken out to the platter. Spoon the sauce over the chicken.

Serve chicken with the mushrooms sauce and a side of green vegetables.

What a meal to serve my Master!

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It was a time that politics and religion were one and the same. The Pilgrims left England in 1622 to escape that mix.

In 1636 John Atherton was appointed a bishop of the Church of Ireland. He was not welcomed by the Roman Catholic majority in his see. For nearly five years, Bishop Atherton was one of the loudest and most anti-gay proponents for a new law making homosexuality a capital crime.

Then in 1640 Atherton was accused of buggery with a man, John Childe, his steward and tithe proctor. They were tried under that law that Atherton himself had helped to institute. They both faced the death sentence.

The Bishop's fellow clerics did what they could to defend him, to avoid disgrace to the reformed religion of Ireland. Throughout the case he pleaded his innocence in the face of flimsy evidence. His sole accuser was a man lacking integrity and credibility. It was his word against John’s. The accuser won the day and the outcome was inevitable.

Years later, the man on whose sole evidence John was condemned, was himself brought to justice and hanged. At the gallows, he confessed his sins and in that confession declared that the accusation against John Atherton had been completely false.

It is said that during the trial, Atherton burned a bundle of papers, which he had written out of law books, for his own defense.

Reports said that Atherton's attitude during the trial was 'by all condemned;' but when the fatal issue became manifest his manner changed. Three times daily Dr. Nicholas Bernard visited the prisoner, who became penitent, and faced the penalty with equanimity.

'The magnanimity of the man,' says Bernard, 'I did much admire.' When news of a possible reprieve came, 'it moved him not, as rather choosing a present deserved death than the prolonging of an ignominious life; whereby the scandal would but increase'.

The verdict of guilty was hailed by cheers in court, and he was nearly murdered on his way from the bar to the Dublin Gaol in Cork.

He always denied the specific charge of sodomy, and did so once again from the gallows before he was hung on December 5^th.

His lover John Childe was hanged shortly afterwards at Bandon Bridge.

This was the second pair of men executed for sodomy in the history of the United Kingdom.

(the first men executed for sodomy were Lord Audley, Earl of Castlehaven and his two menservants, in 1631.)

A contemporary pamphlet, The Life and Death of John Atherton (1641), remains. However the trial records, were destroyed in the Jacobite rebellion that broke out almost immediately after Atherton's execution.

Fifty years later Atherton was defended as a victim of a conspiracy, on evidence gathered from “people recently living”.

They said the main reason for the Bishop's disgrace was his political efforts in opposing the Articles of Irish Convocation in 1634, and the personal hatred of the Earl of Cork, whom he had successfully sued in a dispute over land rights. Atherton's patron, the Earl of Strafford, also an enemy of the Earl of Cork, was executed for treason in May 1641.

Others said Atherton's demeanor was clearly incompatible with the idea he was the innocent victim of a vile conspiracy. It is to be noted that none of his accusers were Roman Catholics.

The Bishop's body, by his own desire, was buried in the obscurest part of St. John's churchyard, Dublin.

From our vantage point nearly 400 years latter we can see that both sides were using the Bishop's memory for their own political gains.

But what about the man behind the title? Was he gay? There is no true way of telling. Yet just this week we hear the news of another anti-gay, homophobic person of power being caught having homosexual relations. Did he protest too much?