John Charles McQuaid
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John Charles McQuaid CSSp (July 28, 1895 - April 7, 1973) was Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland between December 1940 and February 1972.
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| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Senior posting | |
| See | Dublin |
| Title | Archbishop of Dublin |
| Period in office | 1940 —1972 |
| Consecration | 27 December 1940 |
| Predecessor | Edward Joseph Byrne |
| Successor | Dermot J. Ryan |
| Religious career | |
| Priestly ordination | 29 June 1924 |
| Previous bishoprics | none |
| Previous post | Teacher |
| Personal | |
| Date of birth | July 28, 1895 |
| Place of birth | Cavan |
John Charles McQuaid was born in Cootehill, County Cavan in 1895. He joined the religious congregation, the Holy Ghost Fathers, where he taught at the highly regarded school Blackrock College in Dublin, which had educated many senior Irish political and business leaders. As Fr. McQuaid, he was close to Eamon de Valera, a future Taoiseach, himself a former Blackrock College teacher. He would later influence de Valera in drafting the modern Irish constitution (Bunreacht na hEireann).
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[edit] Archbishop of Dublin
In 1940, he was made Archbishop of Dublin. As Archbishop, he proved to be a highly influential political figure. In the early 1950s, Noel Browne, the First Inter-Party Government's Minister of Health, - shocked by the absence of ante-natal care for pregnant women, and the resulting infant mortality rates in deeply-Catholic Ireland - proposed providing free access to health care for mothers and children in a new Mother and Child Scheme. The Archbishop's criticism of the scheme, compounded by political misjudgments by Browne, as well as tensions between Browne and Sean MacBride, his political party leader, and Browne's behaviour towards other ministers, helped pave the way for the government's decision to withdraw the scheme.
There was continuing conflict between McQuaid and de Valera. In 1946 he supported the national teachers’ strike, to de Valera’s considerable annoyance.
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John Charles McQuaid |
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[edit] Regarding elevation to the College of Cardinals
McQuaid was never made a cardinal. Joseph Walsh, the Irish minister to the Holy See, had warned the Vatican that if McQuaid was elevated “the Nuncio would have endless difficulties, with every sphere of his activities, owing to this deplorable weakness in [ McQuaid’s] character, already so well known to the Holy See”. Nevertheless, McQuaid did oversee a massive expansion of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Dublin during his term. He also established a wide range of social services for the poor of the city under the aegis of various Catholic Agencies.
[edit] Second Vatican Council
McQuaid attended the Second Vatican Council but was critical of post-Vatican II Catholicism. After returning from the Council in 1965 he famously announced that "nothing has changed". When making his automatic offer of retirement from his See to Pope Paul VI, at the age of 75, he was stunned to have it accepted in December 1971, and further stunned when one of his internal critics, the liberal Dermot J. Ryan, was appointed to his post instead. McQuaid formally relinquished the government of the Archdiocese of Dublin when his successor was ordained Archbishop in February 1972.
McQuaid died suddenly in his private residence in Killiney in Dublin in April 1973. He is buried in St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop.
| Preceded by Edward Joseph Byrne |
Archbishop of Dublin 1940-1971 |
Succeeded by Dermot J. Ryan |
[edit] References
- John Whyte – Church and State in Modern Ireland 1923-1979
- Bernard J Canning – Bishops of Ireland 1870-1987
- Patrick Corish – The Irish Catholic Experience
- Dermot Keogh – Ireland and the Vatican. (1995)
