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William John Walsh

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"WILLIAM JOHN WALSH (1841-1921), Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, was born in Dublin Jan. 30 1841, and was educated at St. Laurence O'Toole's seminary, Dublin, afterwards entering the Catholic University and St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. In 1867 he became professor of dogmatic and moral theology at Maynooth, was appointed vice-president of the college in 1878, and in 1881 succeeded Dr. Russell as its president. Four years later he became Archbishop of Dublin on the death of Dr. McCabe. Archbishop Walsh, besides being an energetic worker and writer, was a keen politician, and was conspicuous for his extreme Nationalist opinions. He was one of the witnesses before the Parnell Commission of 1888-9, and served on many committees and boards, chiefly educational, becoming in 1891 a commissioner of education in Ireland. He would have nothing to do with the suggestion for settling the difficulty of Catholic higher education in Ireland by establishing a Roman Catholic faculty of theology in Trinity College, an institution which he attacked as a centre of Protestant influence, and insisted on the need for a university with a " Catholic atmosphere." In 1908 he became a member of the Dublin Statutory Commission appointed under the Irish University Act, which established the Catholic National University, of which he became chancellor.

In proportion as the Nationalist party seemed disposed to compromise with the Government, Dr. Walsh drew away from it; and after the concessions made to Ulster in 1914, and more especially after the rebellion of 1916, he threw his influence more and more on to the side of the extremists. In the election of Dec. 1918 he voted for a Sinn Fein republican candidate.

Dr. Walsh produced various volumes of addresses on religious and educational subjects, and also published A Plain Exposition of the Irish Land Act of 1881 (1881); The Queen's Colleges and the Royal University of Ireland (1883-4); The Irish University Question (1897); and two attacks on Trinity College, Dublin, Trinity College and the University of Dublin (1902) and Trinity College and its Medical School (1906). He died in Dublin April 9 1921.