John Charles McQuaid - Early Life 1895-1914

Early Life 1895-1914

John Charles McQuaid was born in Cootehill, Co. Cavan, on 28 July 1895, to Dr. Eugene McQuaid and Jennie Corry. His mother died a week later and his father, a doctor, signed her death certificate. A little over a year later he married a woman named Agnes, who raised John and his sister Helen as her own. In his teens John learned that Agnes was not his real mother. The McQuaids adopted two more children.

He attended the Cootehill National School, where the principal, James Fitzsimmons, wrote in 1910: "the most intelligent boy I ever taught. His ability to assimilate knowledge was a revelation. With such intellectual attainments this boy will have a brilliant scholastic career and will rise to great heights in whatever profession he adopts; an excellent type of student – well behaved, obedient, studious ..... truthfulness was his outstanding characteristic."

After primary school, John went to St. Patrick's College, Cavan, then to Blackrock College in Dublin, run by the Holy Ghost Fathers. He sat for the Junior Grade examination in 1911; placed eighth in the whole country in the Classics' he took first place in Ireland in Latin with 98%' in Greek he registered 96%, and in French 80%. An influence on him during his time in Blackrock College came from Brother, Gaspard O'Reilly, C.S.Sp. He believed he owed his vocation to the priesthood to the prayers of Brother Gaspard. Many years later, on the day he was consecrated Archbishop, he paid him a generous tribute.

In 1911 he entered Clongowes Wood Jesuit College in Co. Kildare with his brother Eugene. Here he won a gold medal for Religious Knowledge in 1912 and another in 1913, a gold medal for English essay in 1913 and a prize for debating. In later years he used to say that he learned his devotion to the Blessed Virgin in the Sodality of Our Lady Immaculate in Clongowes. It was while he was at Clongowes that he learned from another pupil that Agnes was not his mother. The news seems to have affected him powerfully. When his father died John had him buried with his mother, not his stepmother. However he remained devoted all through life to his stepmother and to her children.

On completion of his secondary studies, some people expected him to study medicine, following the family tradition. However, he entered the novitiate of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Kimmage, Dublin in 1913. His novice master was Father Daniel Walsh who was well respected in the Irish Province but died in the Great Flu of 1918.

The celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Thomas Davis (Young Irelander), a famous Protestant nationalist occurred in 1913 while McQuaid was a novice in Kimmage. Significantly McQuaid referred in his notebook to Davis' famous question:

What matter that at different shrines

We pray unto one God?

He noted: "Yes for a logical Protestant but No for Catholics. We must heed what is in the creed. ... If a neutral nationality be set up, if Protestants are drawn in and not converted, is not the supernatural end missed?"