By Henry McDonald
Guardian (United Kingdom)
January 1, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/01/cardinal-cahal-daly-ireland-catholic-church-ira-troubles
The former leader of Ireland's Catholics, Cahal Daly, who was an implacable opponent of the IRA, died last night, aged 92. He had been in the coronary intensive care unit at Belfast city hospital since Monday and died peacefully in the presence of his family and friends, said his successor, Cardinal Sean Brady. "It is difficult to do full justice to the significance and achievements of his long, full and happy life. But I believe, when fully assessed and appreciated, the legacy of Cardinal Cahal Daly to the ecclesiastical and civil history of Ireland will be seen as immense," he said.
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| Cardinal Cahal Daly, who has died aged 92. |
Daly was born in Loughguile, Co Antrim, on 1 October 1917. He was archbishop of Armagh and was made a cardinal in 1991. He retired in 1996, at the age of 79, and returned to his study of philosophy.
As head of the Catholic church, he was outspoken against IRA violence and publicly denounced acts of terrorism as "sinful". During one sermon in the 1980s in St Patrick's chapel in central Belfast, Sinn Féin supporters walked out in protest.
He was cardinal at a time of crisis for the Catholic church in Ireland, particularly in its response to the paedophile priest scandals and the disclosure that Bishop Eamon Casey had plundered diocesan funds in Galway to support the son he kept secret in the US.
Cardinal Daly's lowest point came in the 1990s, when the audience of Ireland's premier television chat programme, The Late Late Show, booed him over his response to questions about the church's cover-up of the activities of paedophile priests.
Among Cardinal Daly's published works are Philosophy in Britain from Bradley to Wittgenstein and The Minding of Planet Earth, published in 2004.
The former prime minister Tony Blair, who helped bring about the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998, praised his contribution to ending the violence. "Cardinal Daly's death is a real loss to Ireland. He made a significant contribution to delivering peace as he worked to break down barriers between communities.
"His life is a real and lasting example of effective religious leadership working to build peace and resolve conflict in the most challenging of circumstances."
The leader of Fine Gael, Ireland's main opposition party, extended his sympathy to the late cardinal's family. Enda Kenny said: "He played a central role in resolving the Northern Ireland conflict. Cardinal Daly and his Christian colleagues strove tirelessly for peace and sanity in the midst of great turmoil in the north."
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