Cardinal John Francis D'Alton

Life

John Francis D'Alton was born on 11 October 1882 in Claremorris, County Mayo, the son of Joseph D'Alton and Mary Brennan. He received an exceptionally wide education for an Irish priest of his generation, studying at Blackrock College, Holy Cross College Clonliffe, the Royal University of Ireland in Dublin, the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, and afterwards at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin in St John Lateran's Basilica, Rome, on 18 April 1908.

From 1910 to 1942 he served on the staff of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, the national seminary, holding successively the chairs of Ancient Classics (1912) and Greek (1922), and the offices of Vice-President (1934) and President (1936). A scholar of distinction, his book 'Horace and his Age' is still consulted by classicists.

On 25 April 1942 he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Meath and Titular Bishop of Binda, and was consecrated by Cardinal Joseph MacRory on 29 June of that year. He succeeded as Bishop of Meath on 16 June 1943. On 13 June 1946 Pope Pius XII named him Archbishop of Armagh and thus Primate of All Ireland. He was created Cardinal Priest of Sant'Agata dei Goti in the consistory of 12 January 1953.

As Primate, D'Alton led the Irish Church through a period of rapid social change, vigorously defending Catholic education and championing Irish unity through peaceful and constitutional means. He was a member of the Central Preparatory Commission of the Second Vatican Council and lived just long enough to attend the council's first session in 1962.

He died of a heart attack in Dublin on 1 February 1963, aged 80, and was buried in the grounds of St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh.