Caron (Mac Carraghamhna), Richard (Ricardo de la Peña) (1579–c.1630), Dominican priest, was born in the barony of Kilkenny West, the son of Henry Caron and Evelyn Nicholas. He belonged to an ancient, distinguished Westmeath Gaelic Irish family, which claimed descent from the southern Uí Néill and had lost most of its ancestral lands to Anglo-Norman families. His early bilingual education in grammar, rhetoric, and the humanities was supervised by Humphrey Powell Walsh, William Macgillaboy, Bernard Quirke, and a schoolmaster surnamed Hussey. On 29 February 1600 he was admitted to the Irish college at Salamanca, intending to become a diocesan priest, but in the autumn of 1601 he joined the Spanish Dominicans and, together with Ross MacGeoghegan (qv), made his religious profession at Peña de Francia (south-west of Salamanca) on 8 November 1602. Ever afterwards he was known, and invariably signed his name, as Ricardo de la Peña (omitting his surname). Having completed his studies in Castille, he was ordained priest, graduated in theology, and spent some years teaching, probably in Galicia, where he was active among foreigners, especially the considerable population of Irish émigrés. From 1613, when he was appointed procurator of the Irish Dominicans at Madrid, he worked indefatigably, applying his diplomatic and considerable organisational skills. He played an indispensable role as MacGeoghegan's representative at the Spanish court in negotiations that led to the foundation of the Irish Dominican colleges of Lisbon and Louvain in the Spanish Netherlands.
Caron was at the convent of San Pablo, Seville, about 1615 when, with a journey to England in view, he addressed his need for assistance to the Conde de Aguila. In support of his appeal Philip O'Sullivan Beare (qv) declared him expert in both Irish and English. Whether he went is not known. He was at Madrid in 1617, when he acted as sponsor for Domhnall O'Sullivan Beare (qv), supporting his admission to the knighthood of the Order of Santiago. Early that year, having already applied for travelling expenses (viaticum), together with fellow Dominicans Peter Martin, Vincent Hogan, and John Fox, he crossed to Ireland as vicar of the Dominicans there and as superior of the Dublin community. Taken prisoner at Galway with Aeneas O'Callanan OP, they were dispatched to Dublin castle, where they were incarcerated under rigorous conditions for eighteen months. Caron lost books, together with liturgical and religious requisites, the value of which amounted to 1,000 ducats. During their captivity the men were subjected alternately to threats and the promise of enticing rewards to persuade them to renounce their faith. Catholics secretly sent money for their support, so that they were able to pay their jailer a daily fee in return for a clean cell. They were released in July 1618, at the same time as about 100 other ecclesiastics imprisoned in different parts of Ireland, through the personal intervention of Count Gondomar, Spanish ambassador in London. Caron and O'Callanan were banished and transported to England and thence to Bordeaux.
Early in 1619, having returned to Madrid, where he placed himself at Gondomar's service for secret business, Caron presented to Philip III a valuable, detailed report on the life and sufferings of Irish catholics, including his own recent experiences, which expanded into a commentary on the spiritual and temporal state of Ireland. At Trianos in the province of León, Caron accepted the gift of a house as a future Dominican college, but in vain (1619–20) sought Philip III's patronage for its maintenance. In January 1620 he petitioned the king in favour of the impoverished Dominican nun Leonora O'Sullivan Beare, supported by testimonials from her brother Philip O'Sullivan Beare, Dermot O'Sullivan Mór, Thaddeus O'Driscoll, and other notables, including MacGeoghegan, who was by now vicar general of the Irish Dominicans. In the autumn of 1620 Caron led a party of ten Dominicans from Spain to Ireland, managing to escape detection.
In Madrid in 1622, Caron issued a testimonial supporting the admission of Simon French of Galway as a knight of Santiago. Similar testimonials were issued for Albert Hugh O'Donnell (Order of Alcántara) and Gerald Fitzgerald (Order of Santiago). In 1623 and 1625, Caron pressed Philip IV for a royal licence to open a college in Lisbon (then under Spanish rule), which was to be aided by Antonio de Mascarenhas, a nobleman, priest, and dean of the chapel royal of Portugal, but the Portuguese council of state obstructed the proposal. In 1626 Caron was busy collecting money for the new Irish Dominican college at Louvain and petitioning the king of Spain concerning the nomination of an Irish Dominican to the see of Armagh, while continuing his principal annual work of arranging the return of young confrères to Ireland from Spanish-controlled ports. In 1627–8 he himself was listed as worthy of an Irish bishopric, including Armagh.
Late in 1627 Nicholas Ridolfi, master general of the Dominicans, informed him that he must leave Madrid before the arrival of Daniel O'Daly (qv), his successor as procurator. In 1627–9, having moved to La Coruña and been nominated superior of the Louvain college, he petitioned Philip IV and his council for an annual pension of 100 ducats, which was granted. On 18 August 1629 the master general awarded him the theological degree of praesentatus at the request of Nicholas Lynch (qv), Irish provincial. It is not known whether Caron ever reached Louvain, but he was dead before 11 May 1630.
The world of the Spanish royal court did not limit Caron's boundless apostolic activities, but rather stimulated them. He was always prompt in promoting the interests of his exiled countrymen, seeking out lapsed catholics and converting protestants. In La Coruña he converted three English pirates captured by the Spanish, and at Madrid an Anglo-Scottish gentleman named MacGrannell. In the 1620s he was responsible for the reconversion of four Irishmen, Thomas Bradagan, Daniel Flanagan, Matthew Quinlan, and William Dun, former servants of the English ambassador in Madrid. He also converted Daniel O'Riordan, brought up as a protestant, who was a member of the prince of Wales's retinue in Madrid in 1623. As all were dismissed, disgraced, and ruined, Caron personally saw to their rehabilitation and temporal welfare.
For Caron and MacGeoghegan, a restored, reformed, and spiritually vibrant Irish Dominican province, stemming from a flourishing continental Dominicanism, became their paramount collaborative objective. Richard Caron's hitherto unrecognised singular contribution entitles him to be counted as one of the province's founding fathers in the second phase of its existence.