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Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Scholasticism


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Birth of Alan McGuckian, Bishop of Down and Connor

Alexander Aloysius “Alan” McGuckian, SJ, the 33rd Bishop of Down and Connor, is born on February 25, 1953, in Cloughmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

McGuckian is the youngest of six children to Brian McGuckian and his wife Pauline (née McKenna). He is named after his uncle, also Alexander Aloysius McGuckian, who dies five month before he is born. Yet another uncle, Daniel McGuckian, is a priest of the Diocese of Down and Connor and serves as parish priest of Cushendun and then Randalstown until his death in 1980. His father is a successful pig farmer who, alongside his brothers, develops the world’s biggest pig farm.

Two of McGuckian’s brothers are also Jesuit priests, while another brother is a businessman. Both of his sisters predecease him.

McGuckian attends primary school in Cloughmills and secondary school at St. MacNissi’s College, before beginning studies in Irish language and scholastic philosophy at Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB) in 1971, where he is a near-contemporary of future brother bishop Dónal McKeown. He first visits Ranafast, County Donegal, in 1968, and has since become a regular visitor to the Donegal Gaeltacht.

After one year in Belfast, McGuckian enters the Jesuit novitiate at Manresa House in Clontarf, Dublin, during which time he completes a Bachelor of Arts in Latin and Spanish from University College Dublin (UCD) between 1974 and 1977, a Bachelor of Philosophy from Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy between 1977 and 1979, and a Master of Divinity and a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from Regis College, Toronto, between 1981 and 1985. He subsequently completes a Master of Arts in Irish translation from Queen’s University, Belfast.

McGuckian is ordained to the priesthood on June 22, 1984, and makes his final profession on February 15, 1997.

Following ordination, McGuckian spends four years as a teacher in Clongowes Wood College and vocations director for the Jesuits, before undertaking a six month period of spiritual renewal in southern India and serving in a shanty town in Quezon City, Philippines.

McGuckian returns to Ireland in 1992, where he is appointed director of the Jesuit Communication Centre, during which he develops Sacred Space, a website which allows people to pray at their computer, in 1999, and Catholic news service CatholicIreland.net in 2004.

McGuckian also serves as editor of both An Timire and Foilseacháin Ábhair Spioradálta, later translating the autobiography of Ignatius of Loyola into Irish under the title Scéal an Oilithrigh. He also co-authors the drama 1912 – A Hundred Years On with Presbyterian historian Philip Orr in 2011, which looks at the experiences of the Ulster Covenant and the wider Home Rule movement from both nationalist and unionist perspectives.

McGuckian also serves as chaplain to many of the Gaelscoileanna in the Diocese of Down and Connor, and subsequently as chaplain to Ulster University campuses in Belfast and Jordanstown. Following the publication of the Living Church Report, which outlines the findings of a synodal process within the diocese, he is appointed by Noël Treanor in 2012 to set up and lead the Living Church Office, whose aim is to realise the hopes and aspirations expressed in the report and subsequently in the upcoming diocesan pastoral plan.

McGuckian is also appointed diocesan director of formation for the permanent diaconate in 2014, and also works during his directorship of the Living Church Office to establish pastoral communities across the diocese, through fostering a culture of co-responsibility for the mission of the Church between clergy and lay people.

McGuckian is appointed Bishop-elect of Raphoe by Pope Francis on June 9, 2017. His appointment makes him the first member of the Jesuits to be appointed a bishop in Ireland.

McGuckian is consecrated by the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Eamon Martin, on August 6, 2017, in the Cathedral of St. Eunan and St. Columba, Letterkenny. He uses the name and title Alan Mac Eochagáin, C. Í. when ministering in the Gaeltacht.

In an interview with The Irish Catholic in September 2019, McGuckian says that having a home is as fundamental as the right to life and education, and that the Government must be “pushed” to enshrine a right to housing in the Constitution of Ireland. He also joins a number of church leaders in the West of Ireland on September 16, 2021, in calling on the Irish government to offer reparations to homeowners whose properties are affected by defective concrete blocks.

In an interview with The Irish Catholic in February 2021, McGuckian takes issue with the view held by political leaders that public worship is deemed to be “non-essential” during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland. Quoting Pope Francis, who states that “the right to worship must be respected, protected and defended by civil authorities like the right to bodily and physical health,” he expresses a need to let political leaders know that public worship is not only central, but also “utterly essential.”

Following a fatal explosion in Creeslough, County Donegal, on October 7, 2022, McGuckian refers to the explosion as “the darkest day in Donegal,” adding that the local community is “living through a nightmare of shock and horror.” He also concelebrates at the Funeral Masses of each of the victims, describing the fact that the parish church would be holding two funerals in the space of three hours as “surreal.”

McGuckian is appointed Bishop of Down and Connor by Pope Francis on February 2, 2024. In his first address following his appointment, he expresses his hope that the restoring of the Northern Ireland Executive will help the most vulnerable in society.


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Birth of Cahal Daly, Archbishop of Armagh

Cahal Brendan Daly KGCHS, a Roman Catholic cardinal, theologian and writer, is born Charles Brendan Daly on October 1, 1917, in Ballybraddin, Loughguile, a village near Ballymoney in County Antrim.

Daly serves as the Catholic Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh from late 1990 to 1996, the oldest man to take up this role in nearly 200 years. He is later created a Cardinal-Priest of San Patrizio by Pope John Paul II in the papal consistory of June 28, 1991.

Daly is the third child of seven born to Charles Daly and Susan Connolly. His father is a primary school teacher originally from Keadue, County Roscommon, and his mother a native of Antrim. He is educated at St. Patrick’s National School in Loughguile, and then as a boarder in St. Malachy’s College, Belfast, in 1930. The writer Brian Moore is a near contemporary.

Daly studies Classics at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). He earns his BA with Honours and also the Henry Medal in Latin Studies in 1937 and completes his MA the following year. He enters St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth and is ordained to the priesthood on June 22, 1941. He continues studies in theology in Maynooth, from where he obtains a doctorate in divinity (DD) in 1944. His first appointment is as Classics Master in St. Malachy’s College (1944–45).

In 1945, Daly is appointed Lecturer in Scholastic Philosophy at Queen’s University, Belfast, retaining the post for 21 years. In the academic year 1952–53 QUB grants him sabbatical leave, which he spends studying at the Catholic University of Paris where he receives a licentiate in philosophy. He returns to France at many points, particularly for holidays. He persists with his studies well into his retirement. He is a popular figure with the university and fondly remembered by his students. He is named a Canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Diocese of Down and Connor in 1966.

Daly is a peritus, or theological expert, at the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) to Bishop William Philbin during the first session of the Council and to Cardinal William Conway for the rest of the council. He dedicates himself to scholarship for 30 years, and publishes several books seeking to bring about understanding between the warring factions in Northern Ireland.

Daly is appointed Reader in Scholastic Philosophy at QUB in 1963, a post he holds until 1967, when he is appointed Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise on May 26.

Daly converts his forename Charles into Cahal ahead of his episcopal consecration in St. Mel’s Cathedral, Longford, on July 16, 1967, from Cardinal William Conway, with Archbishop Giuseppe Sensi and Bishop Neil Farren serving as co-consecrators.

Daly spends 15 years as bishop in Longford and is diligent about parish visitation and confirmations gradually assume a greater national profile. From 1974 onward, he devotes himself especially to ecumenical activities for the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. His pastoral letter to Protestants, written in 1979, pleads for Christian unity.

Daly succeeded William Philbin as the 30th Bishop of Down and Connor when he is installed as bishop of his native diocese at a ceremony in St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast, on October 17, 1982.

On November 6, 1990, Daly is appointed Archbishop of Armagh and, as such, Primate of All Ireland. His age makes him an unexpected occupant of the post. Despite this it is requested that he stay in the role for three years before usual age of episcopal retirement at 75. Cardinal Daly takes a notably harder line against the Irish Republican Army (IRA) than his predecessor, Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.

Daly is respectful of Protestant rights and opposes integrated education of Catholics and Protestants. This policy is criticised by those who see segregated education as one of the causes of sectarianism in Northern Ireland, but is seen by the Catholic clergy as important for passing on their faith to future generations. He is utterly orthodox in opposing divorce, contraception, abortion, the ordination of women and any idea of dropping clerical celibacy.

Daly is heckled by the audience on live television during a broadcast of The Late Late Show on RTÉ One on the topic of pedophilia in the 1990s. After his retirement in 1996, he makes no public statement on the issue.

Daly retires as Archbishop of Armagh on his 79th birthday, October 1, 1996, and subsequently suffers ill health. Although it is announced that he will attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II, he stays home on the advice of his doctors. His age makes him ineligible to participate in the 2005 conclave that elects Pope Benedict XVI.

Daly is admitted to the coronary unit of Belfast City Hospital on December 28, 2009. His health has already been declining, leading to prayers being ordered for him. He dies in hospital in Belfast on December 31, 2009, aged 92. His family are at his bedside at the time. His death brings to an end a two-year period during which Ireland has, for the first time in its history, three living Cardinals.

Daly lay in state in Belfast and then his remains are taken to Armagh. Pope Benedict XVI pays tribute at this stage. Large numbers of people travel from as far as County Westmeath to attend Mass at Armagh on January 4, at which Monsignor Liam McEntaggart, the former parish priest of Coalisland, says, “When the history of peace making in Ireland comes to be written, the contribution of Cardinal Daly will be accorded a high place.” Monsignor McEntaggart himself dies on August 22, 2010, aged 81, less than eight months after Cardinal Daly’s passing.

Daly’s funeral is held on January 5, 2010, and is attended by the president Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Brian Cowen. Daly is buried in the grounds of St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Armagh, next to his three predecessors in the see, Cardinals Ó Fiaich, Conway and D’Alton.