"[citation needed] While serving his novitiate, McQuaid studied at University College Dublin, where he was awarded a first class honours BA in 1917 and MA in Ancient Classics in 1918.

[citation needed] At Blackrock, McQuaid soon made his name as an administrator and as a headmaster with detailed knowledge of educational developments in other countries and with wide cultural views.

This was a major gathering, involving many people and events that included a large garden party organised by McQuaid in the grounds of Blackrock College, attended by many clerics and laypeople.

The college president was a regular guest in the house and eventually his advice was sought in a very important de Valera achievement, the drafting of a new constitution for the country.

Years later when de Valera was president and host to a number of bishops who had come to Blackrock College for its centenary celebrations [1960] he stated that the articles in the constitution most admired had been influenced by McQuaid who was now Archbishop of Dublin.

[1]In 1937, the new Irish Constitution was adopted which, inter alia, acknowledged the "special position" of the Catholic Church "as the guardian of the Faith professed by the great majority of the citizens.

[8]McQuaid's appointment in 1940 to the Archdiocese of Dublin, the second most important and populous in the country, came at a more stable point in Irish politics, following the violence involving the IRA and the Blueshirts and the tensions caused by the Economic War with the UK in the 1930s.

Also McQuaid's relations with the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, were at that time excellent in contrast to most of the hierarchy[clarification needed] who were distinctly cool towards him.

The hierarchy and clergy of the Irish Church reflected the views of the strong and middling farmer class from which they were mostly drawn and were uncomprehending of urban life and poverty.

"[9] David C. Sheehy, Dublin diocesan archivist, wrote in 2003 that McQuaid, whom he describes as being a prima donna, "saw the achievement of high office as the natural and appropriate outcome for someone of his background, education and talents.

[citation needed] In the 1950s, McQuaid ordered the purchase of Ashurst, a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion on Military Road in Killiney, an upmarket suburb in south County Dublin.

He renamed the mansion Notre Dame de Bois, and it became his chief residence thereafter, as he preferred it to Archbishop's House, the official episcopal palace in Drumcondra.

[citation needed] In 1952, McQuaid writing to the Apostolic Nuncio, complained "From Mr de Valera's re-assumption of political leadership, the chief element of note, as far as the church is concerned, is a policy of distance.

In 1946 he found Kavanagh a job on the Catholic magazine The Standard but the poet remained chronically disorganised and the archbishop continued to assist him until his death.

What this ostensibly austere Spiritan found to admire and support in the raggle-taggle character who sometimes sounded like a latter-day William Blake long puzzled me, except that McQuaid must have seen in him a deep and authentic Catholicism.

[18]On Kavanagh's death in 1967, McQuaid told his widow that prior to their marriage he had arranged for her husband to be cared for at a private nursing home when necessary but that it was "not God's will".

As former teachers (and de Valera had also been Minister for Education in 1939/1940), both men had a very high opinion of the teaching profession but the Government was facing severe financial constraints.

[citation needed] McQuaid eventually realised that his support for the teachers would not overcome de Valera's objections and he then persuaded them to end their strike.

Aside from sending clothing, footwear and food, for which he arranged that shipping costs would be borne by the Irish government, he sent £20,000 for use against Communists in the 1948 Italian general election.

This criticism by McQuaid, in the context of his strong personal political influence, and that of the Catholic Church, resulted in the government withdrawing the scheme, and the resignation of Browne.

Browne's resignation ignited a controversy as he passed on correspondence between the Bishop's house and his own department to the editor of the Irish Times, R. M. "Bertie" Smyllie.

His slowness in doing so, however, upset some among the laity: he dragged his feet in particular with regard to the requirements for ecumenism, greater lay participation and upheavals relating to liturgy.

[31][32][page needed] McQuaid resigned his post on 4 January 1971 and formally relinquished the government of the Archdiocese of Dublin when his successor, Dermot Ryan, was ordained Archbishop on 13 February 1972.

Dunn was supported by various priests of the Dublin Archdiocese and addresses a variety of topics including the first film shot in an Irish prison, The Young Offender (1963).

[40] The Commission believed that "Archbishop McQuaid acted as he did to avoid scandal in both Ireland and Rome and without regard to the protection of children in Crumlin Hospital.

"[45] In 1961, McQuaid established a hostel in Dublin for boys who had been in industrial schools – mainly Artane – and assigned priests to see to their spiritual welfare and to help them integrate into society.

In June 2009, John Cooney wrote an article in the Irish Independent demanding to know why Martin had not denounced the alleged horrors of Artane 40 years previously.

[46] Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs correspondent of The Irish Times, also wrote an article entitled "Archbishop Defends Abuse Inaction",[47] in which Martin was quoted as saying: Social workers, health boards and the diocese were trying to reform and eventually close down the institutions [...] Consensus soon emerged that the best – and indeed the only – option for Artane would be to close it down, which happened in 1969 [...] We did consistently hear stories of severe physical abuse and Dickensian conditions there [at industrial schools].

In the privacy of Loughlinstown Hospital Dev wept over the corpse of the Holy Ghost priest on whose behalf he had lobbied the Vatican in 1940 for elevation to the See of Dublin and the Primacy of Ireland.

Although their relationship at times was strained, both men co-operated to control people's lives for so long in a closed and puritanical society which the writer Seán Ó Faoláin memorably decried as a "dreary Eden".