Fagan, Luke (c.1656/7–1733), catholic archbishop of Dublin, was born to a gentry family in Lick Bla near Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath. He may have attended an Irish Jesuit school during the restoration period and appears to have been ordained in 1682. He was received as a student (1682) in the Irish College of Seville, operated by the Jesuits, and later became a confessor for the archdiocese of Seville (1689) before returning to Ireland to await appointment to a parish (1689). He may have visited Portugal and Spain in the early years of the eighteenth century. Fagan was involved in several controversies. The first involved his claim to have encouraged Sylvester Lloyd (qv) to translate Francois Pouget's Montepellier catechism. Both the original catechism and translation were condemned by Rome for their Jansenist leanings. His whereabouts and career are obscure for the better part of eighteen years before his return to Ireland, though the evidence of his will would suggest that he lived in Paris for some time.
Fagan reappears in Dublin in 1707 and was later parish priest of Howth and Baldoyle (1712–13?). Among several siblings was Fr James Fagan, educated at the Irish College of Alcalá, Spain, where he was later superior. James Fagan was later an agent of the Irish bishops in Rome and declined an appointment as bishop of Meath (1707). The position remained vacant until his death (August 1713), when Luke Fagan was appointed bishop by Pope Clement XI; he was consecrated on 7 February 1714. During this period, the bishop participated in a remarkable series of ordinations for the schismatical church of Utrecht. Under the influence of Fr Paul Kenny (qv), Fagan ordained twelve Dutch Jansenists in four ordinations between May 1715 and September 1716. Among these were both a future schismatical bishop, Jerome de Bok of Haarlem, and an archbishop, Peter John Meindaerts of Utrecht, then a centre of Jansenist influence. Fagan was, with good reason, deeply anxious about being discovered, as his actions could have led to excommunication. No bishop had, in fact, dared attempt an ordination for fifteen years. Suspecting they had occurred in Ireland, Rome launched an investigation, but Fagan was never revealed.
Meath was among the most populous and wealthy catholic dioceses in the country and, as bishop, Fagan oversaw considerable development in the diocese. A report on catholicism compiled by Ralph Lambert (d. 1732), the Church of Ireland bishop of Meath (1726–32), confirms the construction of a number of mass-houses, including one in Mullingar. There was, however, yet another incident involving Fagan, this time involving state rather than church authorities. In the light of a minor controversy over the parish priest of Mullingar, Fagan's position was exposed to the authorities. He was examined and the Westmeath grand jury returned a bill of indictment. This time Fagan risked not excommunication but transportation. Either through error or a common reluctance to press certain elements of the penal code, William Shiel, a deputy clerk of the crown, failed to record the bills as required by law. The result was an abeyance of the proceedings and Shiel's eventual dismissal.
Hoping to retire, due to age if not anxiety, Fagan appealed for nomination of a successor in 1727. The appeal was directed to James III, the Old Pretender, who still had the right to nominate bishops by virtue of a papal grant. In the event, on the death of Archbishop Edward Murphy (qv) of Dublin and subsequent squabbles about his successor, Fagan was chosen by Rome as a compromise candidate. He was 73 at the time. More surprisingly perhaps, given the controversies in which he was already involved, he accepted. An oft-told anecdote, probably apocryphal, suggests that Fagan was asked to investigate the earlier ordinations; as archbishop, he was able to question his bishops and declare their innocence. Otherwise, during his episcopacy (1729–33), he seems to have shown sympathy with the regular clergy and introduced Carmelite nuns into Dublin from Loughrea. In addition, a new set of diocesan statutes, dealing with the duties of the clergy, secular and regular, and the administration of the sacraments, was prepared.
Fagan died on 10 November 1733 in Phrapper Lane (later Beresford St.) in St Michan's parish. He left directions for burial in St Michael's protestant churchyard, but no tombstone remains. In his wills, one for his Irish and another for his French assets (which were considerable), he left bequests to his servants, imprisoned debtors, the Dublin Charitable Infirmary, and four Irish burses for the Irish College of Paris. Interestingly, both wills involve the controversial Cornelius Nary (qv), vicar-general under Fagan and parish priest of St Michan's, where Fagan may have resided during his episcopate.