John Francis D’Alton, Irish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who serves as Archbishop of Armagh and thus Primate of All Ireland from 1946 until his death, is born in Claremorris, County Mayo, on October 11, 1882. He is elevated to the cardinalate in 1953.
D’Alton is born to Joseph D’Alton and his wife Mary Brennan, at the height of the Land Wars in Ireland. He is baptised four days later, on October 15, 1882, with Michael and Mary Brennan acting as his godparents. His mother has a daughter, Mollie Brennan, from a previous marriage, she remarries again after the Cardinal’s father dies in 1883.
D’Alton obtains an extensive education at Blackrock College, Holy Cross College in Drumcondra, University College Dublin (UCD) and the Irish College in Rome. He is a contemporary of Éamon de Valera, whom he befriends at Blackrock College. In his first year in Blackrock, de Valera beats D’Alton in two subjects – Maths, which he later goes on to teach, and Religion.
D’Alton is ordained to the priesthood on April 18, 1908, for service in the Archdiocese of Dublin. He undertakes further postgraduate studies in Rome from 1908 to 1910, gaining a Doctor of Divinity and is appointed to teach Ancient Classics, Latin, and Greek at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
D’Alton occupies important roles at the National Seminary and is successively Professor of Ancient Classics (1912), Greek (1922), Vice-President (1934), and President (1936). He is raised to the rank of Monsignor on June 27, 1938.
On April 25, 1942, D’Alton is appointed coadjutor bishop of Meath and titular bishop of Binda. He receives his episcopal consecration on the following June 29 from Cardinal Joseph MacRory, with Bishops Edward Mulhern and William MacNeely serving as co-consecrators, in the chapel of St. Patrick’s College. He succeeds Thomas Mulvany as Bishop of Meath on June 16, 1943.
D’Alton is named Archbishop of Armagh and thus Primate of All Ireland on June 13, 1946, and is created Cardinal Priest of Sant’ Agata de’ Goti in Rome by Pope Pius XII in the consistory of January 12, 1953. As a cardinal elector in the 1958 papal conclave, he gives a hint of the difficulties involved in that papal conclave and achieving unanimity in the voting.
D’Alton is a member of the Central Preparatory Commission of the Second Vatican Council but lives long enough to attend only the Council’s first session in 1962.
One highlight of D’Alton’s time in Armagh is the Patrician Year Celebrations in 1961, marked by the Irish Catholic hierarchy as the 1,500th anniversary of the death of Saint Patrick and as such an opportunity to promote the “spiritual empire” created by the Irish Catholic church in the wider anglophone world. He writes a pastoral letter to mark the occasion.
Cardinal D’Alton is seen to be more ecumenical in outlook than other members of the Irish hierarchy. He tries to broker talks between the Irish Free State and the United Kingdom to ease the tensions between both countries, even going so far as to address the situation regarding the Irish ports, but to little avail.
In 1952, D’Alton becomes the first individual from the Republic of Ireland to receive an honorary degree from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), when he is conferred with a Doctorate in Literature. He already possesses a Doctor of Divinity, so this degree is a recognition of his earlier works such as Horace and His Age: A Study in Historical Background (1917), Roman Literary Theory and Criticism: A Study in Tendencies (1931), and Selections from St. John Chrysostom (1940).
D’Alton dies from a heart attack in Dublin at age 80 on February 1, 1963, and is buried on the grounds of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. He is succeeded by his auxiliary bishop, William Conway.
In D’Alton’s hometown of Claremorris, the Dalton Inn Hotel and Dalton Street (formerly Church Street) are named after him. A plaque commemorating him is unveiled at the Dalton Inn Hotel on September 28, 2023. Plans to canonise him have been discussed.
seamus dubhghaill 