Politician
There was the impression of friendship between McQuaid and Éamon de Valera, founder of Fianna Fáil and frequent head of government from the 1930s to the late 1950s. Historian Dermot Keogh believes that there has been a tendency to view the relationship between the two men as being static and not subject to change or development. Dr Keogh thinks it was quite the reverse. The men were friends and the relationship was less complicated in the 1930s when McQuaid was not archbishop. But after his ordination, McQuaid represented in a formal fashion the interests of the Church and he defended those interests even when it brought him into conflict with the leader of the state who also happened to be his friend. That friendship never clouded both men's concepts of their duties on behalf of church and state. It is all too facile to hold, a priori, that de Valera and McQuaid sang consistently from the same hymnal.
There was continuing conflict between McQuaid and de Valera. In 1946 McQuaid's support of the national teachers’ strike, greatly annoyed de Valera. In 1951 the Fianna Fáil government (which replaced the First Inter-Party Government) introduced a revised version of Noel Browne's original Mother and Child Scheme to which the hierarchy, led by Dr. McQuaid had successfully objected. Although the Archbishop still objected to the modified version, he was out-manoeuvered by de Valera.
Read more about this topic: John Charles McQuaid
Famous quotes containing the word politician:
“The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.”
—Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)
“a politician is an arse upon
which everyone has sat except a man.”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)
“Nixon is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump for a speech on conservation.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)