Hold Firm

Mention Archbishop John Charles McQuaid of Dublin to any Irish Catholic and you will most likely be told that he came back from the Second Vatican Council and said there would be no change. He was torn between innate anxiety about sudden change and unquestioning obedience to every wish of the Pope. He was a man of contrasts, if not opposites, gentle and kind but authoritarian and strict, shy but forceful, indeed the most dominant and controversial Irish churchman of his age. This book reaches behind the myths of John Charles McQuaid and describes how the dream of Pope John's Council was lived out for the Archbishop and the 800,000 Catholics in his archdiocese.