Joseph Mullooly, (19 March 1812 – 25 June 1880)[1] was an Irish Dominican Roman Catholic priest and archaeologist from Lehery, Lanesborough, County Longford, Ireland.
He is noted for excavating the temple of Mithras, (a Zoroastrian and Vedic deity widely venerated in the Roman Empire dating from the reign of Nero) beneath the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome.
"Mullooly’s courage and desire to preserve ancient artefacts can be noted in his defence of the Basilica of San Clemente from destruction.
[3] To emphasise, San Clemente as a Dominican house of studies and as an Irish national college, and under the protection of Queen Victoria, he branded it ‘Collegium Hiberniae Dominicanae de Urbe’.
[4] Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland and later Grand Duchess of Hesse mentions in a letter dated 9 April 1873 to her mother, Queen Victoria, that Joseph Mullooly had shown her around San Clemente during her visit to Rome in April 1873: "We visited San Clemente two days ago, and Father Mulooly [sic] took us through the three churches - one under the other"[5]