John Charles McQuaid - McQuaid Meets de Valera 1931

McQuaid Meets De Valera 1931

In a 1998 article in Studies magazine, McQuaid's Holy Ghost confrere Father Michael O'Carroll wrote that Éamon de Valera entered McQuaids life at about the time the latter became President of Blackrock College in 1931. "De Valera was a past pupil with an amazing attachment to the college. His sons were educated there and he lived nearby. He and his wife Sinead got to know Dr. McQuaid and friendship between them blossomed. 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 he stated that the articles in the constitution most admired had been influenced by Dr. McQuaid who was now Archbishop of Dublin."

This is a somewhat romanticized account that fails to mention the tensions that arose between the two men in the 1940s and 50s when McQuaid was Archbishop of Dublin and de Valera was frequently head of Government. 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. That policy is seen in the failure to consult any Bishop ..."