Kevin McNamara (bishop)

Styles of
**Kevin McNamara**
Styles of; Kevin McNamara
	Your Grace
Religious style	Monsignor

Dermot J. Ryan
Dermot J. Ryan
Successor	Desmond Connell
Orders
Ordination	19 June 1949
Personal details
Born	10 June 1926; Newmarket-on-Fergus, Ireland
Previous post(s)	Kerry (1976–1984); Bishop

Kevin McNamara (10 June 1926 – 8 April 1987) was a senior Irish

Archbishop of Dublin

before dying of cancer.

Career

Kevin McNamara was ordained a priest in St. Patrick's College Maynooth in June 1949. His natural academic talent was recognised and he was soon appointed to teach moral theology rising to become Professor of Dogmatic Theology.

In 1976, he was appointed by

Cardinal William Conway.^[1]

In office, McNamara and the neighbouring

Primate of Ireland, Dermot Ryan

.

McNamara and Newman were particularly outspoken on the issue of a proposed

Irish constitution

. While other bishops advocated people vote with their conscience in the referendum on the issue, McNamara and Newman instructed Catholics that they had a duty to "vote yes" to the referendum.

Archbishop of Dublin

In 1984, the archdiocese of Dublin became vacant when its archbishop,

papal nuncio in Ireland, Archbishop Alibrandi, and the liberal Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition under Garret FitzGerald. Relations between Alibrandi and the coalition had broken down, with the government requesting that Alibrandi be removed because of his suspected closeness to Irish republicans in Sinn Féin and to the opposition Fianna Fáil party and in particular its leader, Charles Haughey

. Critics accused Alibrandi of engineering McNamara's appointment in the belief that the outspoken McNamara could help derail the coalition's liberal policies on divorce and contraception.

McNamara, as expected, took a far more outspoken stance of issues than had Ryan previously. While the coalition succeeded in liberalising the law on contraception, its efforts to amend the constitution on divorce were defeated.[2]

Death

McNamara's service in Dublin was short-lived. Already suffering from what proved to be terminal cancer, Archbishop McNamara died in April 1987 after a three year battle with the disease, months after the Fine Gael minority government had been defeated in the 1987 general election.^[3]

Archbishop McNamara was succeeded as archbishop by a university lecturer, Desmond Connell.

Later linked to non-reporting of clerical sex abuse cases

In the early 2000s, amid growing scandals within the Catholic Church in Ireland about clerical

sex abuse, it was revealed that as archbishop Kevin McNamara had sought legal advice as to the Church's liability arising from such abuse

.

References

^ O'Mahony, John (13 April 2014). "McNamara left a tainted legacy". Killarneytoday.com. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
^ Divorce was introduced by another constitutional amendment a decade later.
^ The Fine Gael-Labour coalition had broken up on the budget in January 1987. A Fine Gael minority government under Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and Tánaiste Peter Barry had remained in office for a couple of weeks afterwards.

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Dermot Ryan	Archbishop of Dublin 15 November 1984 – 8 April 1987	Succeeded by Desmond Connell

[1] O'Mahony, John (13 April 2014). "McNamara left a tainted legacy". Killarneytoday.com. Retrieved 27 April 2019.

[2] Divorce was introduced by another constitutional amendment a decade later.

[3] The Fine Gael-Labour coalition had broken up on the budget in January 1987. A Fine Gael minority government under Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and Tánaiste Peter Barry had remained in office for a couple of weeks afterwards.

[1]

[3]

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