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ARCHBISHOP JOHN CHARLES MC QUAID 1895 – 1973.

Today we will take a break from bonking monks, priests and bishops.

I met John Charles first when I entered Clonliffe seminary in 1970.

He personally met all us 18 new seminarians.

He was a formidable character and going to a meeting with was quite intimidating.

He have each of us a talk on the “facts of life” and presented us with a wood and metal crucifix at the end of the meeting – to grasp when we were tempted to masturbate.

He sent for me on several occasions between September 1970 and 1972 when he retired.

On the last occasion I met him in Archbishop’s House he said to me:

“When I leave here many of my friends will be friends no longer. Will you visit me in Killiney when I retire”?

I was more than happy to agree to do that.

Every Friday, after he retired, I got to buses that got me to his residence, Notre Dame de Bois on Military Road, Killiney, South Dublin.

We chatted over tea made by the Notre Dame Sisters – me eating freshly baked buns and JC eating one digestive biscuit.

We talked about many things including spirituality.

I went to Confession and he left me to the driveway and waited until I got to the gate, where we exchanged a wave.

He always gave my bus fare – right down to the last penny.

I was deeply shocked to hear of his sudden death on Saturday April 7 th 1973.

McQuaid has been turned into an ogre by many historians but he was a Catholuc and a man of his time.

He did dictate to Catholic Ireland from 1940 to 1970.

But he had an extremely kind and charitable side.

Personally, I liked him very much.

FATHER MC GILLOWAY – GLENSTAL AND ALASKA.

McGilloway

Mc Gilloway has ingratiated himself with important people like an Alaska senator and the Alaskan attorney general.

123 replies on “ARCHBISHOP JOHN CHARLES MC QUAID 1895 – 1973.”

Fun Fact:
Rev. Gorgeous is now the head chaplain in the hospital where John Charles McQuaid died in Killiney.

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Thank you for remembering Archbishop John Charles McQuaid Lord rest him, in my opinion Ireland’s greatest Prelate. As you say he has been portrayed as an ogre by many who don’t know any better. I have wonderful memories of him celebrating Pontifical High Mass in the Pro. those were the day’s.

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Pontifical so-called ‘High Mass’? Is there such thing as a low Mass. Mass is Mass dear. The rest is liturgical shiwiness and kitsch.
You must be terribky okd if you remember such Masses. A coffin dodger.

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1107. True Fact – You’re a bitter an twisted individual, likely to be an ex-sem or sem reject. Leave Michael alone and stop stirring things.

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@ 6:45 – what’s got in to you ? Sounds as if you are the twisted individual here. 1107 was only posting out a fact, which has elicited some quite warm and positive comments about Byrne. So what’s the problem ? You ?

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I suppose it does show how much Ireland has changed.

Dr McQuaid was the embodiment of Catholic doctrine.

That an openly gay man is now the chaplain to a former Catholic hospital is the sign of big change.

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Is Byrne still paid as a cleric by the Archdiocese of Dublin, or is he employed and paid by the health board / hospital where he works ? If the latter, then I expect he will be on a pretty reasonable wage and well able to support himself. I’m still confused as to his exact status these days. Is he still incarnated into his diocese and still a cleric in orders and still subject to the requirements / expectations that would come from that ? Or has he been released from his clerical status and expectations ? Or is it just a fudge at the moment ? I don’t ask in order to undermine him, because he appears to have come good, but out of interest as to how these things are managed and in the interests of transparency. And before anybody tells me it is none of my business, I would remind them that people like me pay for the Church to continue, and therefore whatever his current situation is should be transparent and open rather than something worked out in the shadows. We know where that got us in the past !

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My understanding is that he is fully paid by the HSE and that he receives no church funds.

My understanding also it that he is still a deacon but not ministering sacramentally.

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The same questions are not asked of other seminarians like Chris Derwin, Brendan Marshall, Rory Coyle et al.
Just saying

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My understand is that Chris Derwin and Brendan Marshall no longer receive church funds.

Rory is still a priest of Armagh and entitled to sustenance.

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I’m glad to hear that he is taking care of himself. It does raise the question about the status of these chaplaincy roles in places like hospitals. In the past they were firmly under the control of the Church and they were closed roles. What seems to be happening is that the Church is losing control of them and influence over them, and they come under employment legislation so that the Church cannot interfere too much in them and the people who carry them out. in Westminster + Nichols has found this out. He had a RC health chaplain who semi-detached himself and went a bit native, and Vin wanted to get him out of the role but the health trust that employed the guy told Vin to get lost, and that they had no grounds to dismiss the chaplain because Vin told them to, and the guy is still occupying that role and is staying there. Vin has had to learn the lesson that he is only one voice in these things, and often a voice that is ignored as the world moves on and away from the orbit of the RC Church. He also learned a hard lesson at IICSA where he was summonsed – yes, summonsed ! – to appear. Do you think he would have deigned to go before them if he had not been summonsed ?! He’s learning that he and the Church are under the oversight and authority of secular people and bodies, and he does not like it. His own little empire is diminishing. For my part, I think it’s a healthy development. It means that the Church will learn to be humble and simple, and move away from grandiose ideas of itself and its influence. I think we will see that process continue. Ampleforth is learning the same hard lesson.

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Who receives Church funds is the business of those who contribute.

Because the RCC is so pervasive of Irish society its funds etc are matters of public interest.

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9:14 – you could always pluck up the courage and contact him and ask? But no, you insidiously ask questions of him on a blog to illicit a response. How many times have you cast your stone on him? He has been stoned to death by now. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Matthew 7:3

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Can he not join a different Church, order or community? What a waste of a young man! He could join us in the Church of Ireland or join Bishop Pat in Larne.

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11:00 and 11:35 – It is our business. And it is right and proper to ask questions. Why not ? He is a public figure. He receives public money. We have a right to know certain things. When he was a cleric, we had right to know that he was misbehaving and that action was taken. I just don’t see why you think it is non of our business. Do explain. If you can.

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For how long will Roaree be entitled to sustenance? He is is living in London now, doing a lay person’s job. Armagh needs to recall him to the diocese or laicise him.

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Brendan Marshall – who now works for the BBC – had his diploma financed by Bishop Amy Martin 😱

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You may indeed have liked McQuaid, bishop Pat, and he may have been kind and courteous in his personal dealings with you, but that still does not make him or generous man to the wider public he presided over. They say Hitler was very good with children if they belonged to the category of which he approved. And this video of McQaid in all his finery, a still from which the Irish Times published on his Inauguration day as archbishop of Dublin, with the price of each ecclesiastical vestment made by the best Roman tailors, which according to their estimation came to over £4000 in 1940s money, however much it awed his followers, make him any holier. As Hamlet said about Yorrick’s skull, referring to his mother’s prostitution of herself to his uncle: “let her paint an inch thick, but she will have to come to this” – a clay encrusted skull. I would say the same to most of the Irish Catholics hierarchy that set out the standards they wanted me to live by: ’ let them bury themselves the height of. Michangelo’s dome in costly rugs and it will not get them inch nearer their God; let them have their intellectual accomplishments in the most expensive schools in Ireland praised to heaven by the dulcet tones of some bride of Christ, and it will not give them an iota of understanding of those they damaged; let them bring on a Good Friday confessional queue of relatives of the ‘Ask my mother am I a liar’ sort; or physical-force admiring historians and politicians such as Tim Pat Coogan, and it will not make a Cleisthenes out of a Draco. Put one beaten, abused and priest-created orphan on the scales on the other side and all these empty glories will come to nought. Your kindnesses towards him does you credit, but unfortunately it reveals you to be caught up in the web of self delusion that he and his like promoted, and that created the kind of bigots posting on this site you deplore. But better to learn late than not at all. Keep safe.

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Rev. Gorgeous is a good example of a caring and happy hospital chaplain, it is a breath of fresh air to see any young man, or woman, showing such commitment — and in a leading pastoral role.
Rev Gorgeous is a great role model for other young men and women who have a desire to bring people closer to the Lord.
—-
I could easy imagine him to brighten up any hospital ward, and he is always smiling.
Also, we tuned into the service which was broadcasted from the hospital chapel just a few months ago, he is an efficient and genuine preacher.
Good on you, Rev. Gorgeous (and good on the hospital committee too).
Keep up the good work.

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McQuaid was obviously fond of you, Pat. Did you ever sense, have an inkling of, a homoerotic interest by the man? You must have wondered from time to time why he favoured you.

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JC never ehaved or spoke inappropriately at any time I was with him.

I did form the impression that he was of the antique disposition but never acted out.

He had a habit if squeezing your elbow till it hurt and of putting his shoe on top of yours and pressing hard.

I think he was quite isolated and lonely.

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By the way Pat, it was good of you to take all that trouble to visit the man. You were a real friend to him. I wish I had someone like you in my life.
Did you visit McQuaid out of pity for the man? Or because you felt it was the moral thing to do for a young seminarian? Or was it from friendship?

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I visited him because I respected him and the service he had given, because I cared about him, because he has things to teach me and because he told me many would not bother with him. At 20 / 21 you see not wise and totally sure of your motivations.

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at 7.50

It was still very good of you. Very loyal. Such loyalty is rare.

You are a credit to yourself. 👍

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I liked him. At that time he struck a tragic figure. My response was to to be there for him.

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5:26am!
Why do people like you always have to look for hidden agenda’s from any Prelate taking a legitimate interest in the welfare of his seminarians. If there had been it would have been reported on this blog.

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12.18

Why do people like you always fail to ask the obvious questions about the behaviour of certain others, especially the powerful? Are you just thick? Or is it that you’re so deferential to men like McQuaid that you’d sacrifice the physical, emotional and spiritual welfare of young people rather than take to task those showing, shall we say, a particular interest in particular individuals?

You’re aware that McQuaid was alleged to have sexually molested a12-year-old boy, the son of a publican. Those were times when such allegations were never investigated, but brushed under a thick, dirty carpet of clerical deference, the kind, fool, you have expressed here today. A lack of investigation does not equate with lack of credibility. McQuaid may very well have been guilty, but ‘the system’ protected such men in his time and endangered the vulnerable.

Read Pat Buckley’s reply to my comment. He makes it clear that his impression of McQuaid was a man ‘of the antique disposition’, a euphemism for ‘hommosexual’.

I strongly suspect that McQuaid’s interest in Pat was not entirely platonic, even though he may never, in obvious ways, have acted upon it.

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You often trot this story out, Bp Pat, but I had never even heard of the man during most of his reign of terror. Very little, if anything, was reported in the British press about the republic before Dana won Eurovision, or until it joined the common market, now the EU. An Irish penny might occasionally turn up in your change, or you’d see an Irish newspaper in the library. However, I think everything has changed for the better in recent years, though.

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Yes, changed for the better. We had 6, 666 abortions in Ireland last year. Wonder if Fanny Mullaney, Darcy or Dermo will preach about them on the Feast of the Holy Innocents?

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7:13am

If you think everything has turned out for the better it say’s everything about you. There was no reign of terror as you put it if you were leading a decent life. It was only those who chose not to, that considered it to be a reign of terror because they couldn’t get their way. They were wonderful day’s and I for one am grateful that Patsy has good memories as I have of this Great Prelate, Lord rest him.

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4:55pm
Yes allegedly and told by a hack who did not like him, who got it from another enemy of Dr. McQuaid .Noel Browne. There is no proof of this malicious allegation, and that’s what it is. You strongly suspect that the Archbishop’s interest in Patsy was not entirely platonic that say’s more about you. I’m sure if anybody would know it would be Patsy.

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Pat, are you all ready for Christmas? Any holidays plans? sure it must be a long time since you got away for a wee break.

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Christmas for me will be the Vigil on the 24th and Christmas lunch on the 25th.

Covid is not a time for travel.

I fancy seeing Russia after Covid.

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Some good news from the New Ways Ministry Blog:
Mexican Cardinal Endorses Pope’s Support for Civil Unions, Family Inclusion of LGBTQ Members

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I wonder if he is one of those prelates who opposed the outlawing by the Mexican Government, of gay conversion therapy for minors three years ago. Francis didn’t.

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We are all God’s children, Bella. If you hate gays (and you clearly do, despite any denials I expect you to bluster eventually), you hate God as well.

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Far too many people on here are nosey and comment on others without knowing facts. Most comments are hurtful towards others, are very unchristian and are made by ex seminarians, failed seminary applicants, Clergy who criticise their own RCC (leave if it’s that bad) or people with deep rooted mental health issues. On the day of judgment, most of you will not be allowed entry into the Heavenly Kingdom. You do know that right?

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11.25

How do you know that the comments here aren’t factual?

You made a sweeping statement to the contrary, which suggests that you have the evidence to back it up. Why don’t you produce it? Or was your sweeping statement just a lie?

You do know, don’t you, that liars won’t inherit the kingdom of heaven?😕

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4:55pm
Yes allegedly and told by a hack who did not like him, who got it from another enemy of Dr. McQuaid .Noel Browne. There is no proof of this malicious allegation, and that’s what it is. You strongly suspect that the Archbishop’s interest in Patsy was not entirely platonic that say’s more about you. I’m sure if anybody would know it would be Patsy.

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Can you compare John Charles McQuaid to the man that followed him Dermot Ryan and the man that Ordained you Michael Russell.

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Dermot Ryan was an ignorant and arrogant basket.
I was appointed to be his aide de camp on the day he was installed as archbishop of Dublin. His car, with him in it, picked me up at 8 am and dropped me off at 10 pm.
He never spoke a word to me for those 14 hours. He dropped me back at the seminary and never said good night or thank you.
At one moment Eamon Casey asked me to tell Ryan he wanted a word with him. I very gently touched his elbow to get his attention. He shouted at me: “Keep your hands off me”.
He was cold, emotionless and bad mannered.
Michael Russell was a total gentleman. He stopped and offered us seminarians lifts on a daily basis.
John Shine told me that Michael Russell always asked after me.

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11:41am

All the malcontents in Dublin who couldn’t wait to get rid of Dr. McQuaid, got what they deserved a very cold and arrogant individual with no social graces at all. Unlike Archbishop John Charles McQuaid who always looked after his clergy.

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Indeed. Ryan was disgraceful. Karma took the red hat from him on the eve of his receiving it.

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Ryan was a UCD academic (Professor of Oriental Languages) who’d never served a day in a parish. In what way, whatsoever, did the Vatican think that made him suitable to lead a major diocese?

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God not this often repeated John Charles story again!! Must be a bad news day. Are you not tired telling this same story as we are as tired listening to it. This sudden change of heart in relation to Byrne by you raises many questions. He may be an openly gay man as you say but he is an ordained Deacon who lives in a Church property. He has clearly pulled the wool over your eyes Buckley and you are naive and foolish enough to swallow all his guff.

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As this is my blog the decision for the topic is 100% mine.
If you find it boring stop reading it.
I have had no change of heart about MJB.
But I will always give credit where credit is due.
He has finished a challenging chaplaincy course and is now doing good for the sick, in these Covid times.
I have heard he lives in church property but this suggestion has never been proven, to date.

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Mmm ? He still lives in church property ? Does he pay rent since he is earning a salary ? Is he still required to keep his promise of celibacy even though he seems to be semi-detached from the priestly ministry ? I’m a bit worried that MJB is having his cake and eating it, as they say. He’s proven that he is a plausible man and can charm pretty much anybody. But, that can also be used to fool people and to mislead people, to his advantage. Is he an operator and a user of people ? I think these questions should be asked – especially if he is still living his church property and still a cleric. If he was completely independent and looking after himself and outside the clerical orbit, then fine he can do what he wants. But, not until then. And I for one will keep asking questions until such time.

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The RCC has a way of leaving some individuals “adrift” even for year’s.

I think MJB is probably “semi-detached”.

I wonder will Diarmuid go and leave him on a desert island?

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Buckley lives in church property rent free. Should he live by the same rules you are proposing for MJB?

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You’re too late. My living conditions have been decided by the High Court.

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Robert Hourigan, why are you posting anonymously? And you’ve been doing it for some time.

Only you have the peculiar habit of inappropriately punctuating after the word ‘but’.

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I think he is fooling pretty much everyone @12.03pm. It is certainly a case of having your cake and eating it. He has fooled many before and a leopard doesn’t change its spots. It’s a case of using people by charming the birdies out of their trees. A very slick operator I must say who even has Pat Buckley eating out of his hands. One way to be fooled is refusing to believe that which is true.

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I am not eating out of MJB’s hands.
Michael knows a lot more than he admits and I’m sure he has his own plans for the future.
I do think that if he told all he knew many clerics, including senior ones, would be very scared.
In that sense people may have to keep him sweet.

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@12:12 Do you still believe that Robert Hourigan exists? He’s make-believe just like Santi Clause and the Toothfairy.
People dress up as Robert Hourigan at Christmas to scare young monks so they behave. But he’s not real!

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A beautiful mass presided over by a beautiful priest.
He calls himself the ’Grindr Chaplain’. I hear he provides a very useful ministry to the LGBT community.
I hear he does some very good work in the local hospital, especially around COVID patients.
If you think about it, the pharisees attacked Jesus for ministering among the lepers and defending the Samaritans. Father Littleton is attacked by this blog for ministering among the gays and defending our Catholic faith.

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Father Littleton ministering to the gays ?! Bollocks ! He’s as gay as a bent sixpence himself but his rigorous orthodox RC moral theology tends to him being self-loathing and hating anybody who does not stick to the moral teaching of the RC Church. What planet are you on ? Listen to h is sermons.

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I have listened to his sermons and he has visited me in a pastoral capacity many times. He is a very good minister and has an enormous loving, pulsating heart.
He has a good relationship with his parishioners who all appreciate his presence in the parish. He has worked selflessly for so many. So you should stop criticising him and recognise him as the best priest in all of south London. I believe he should be a bishop

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@ 12:12 pm

Yes, I do check-in on the blog at various times during the day. I am honoured that you pay such close attention to my written style. When, I utilise the co-ordinating conjunction: “but” to start a sentence; it is the case that I put a comma after same. But, I disagree with your assertion that it is inappropriate. Stylistically, I do not normally utilise contractions. You will, however, have noticed that I am very fond of hyphenation as I defer to the spelling conventions contained within the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989. Importantly, I put my name to anything I write.

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So for all that longwinded guff, you DO post anonymously, as well as posting under the tag, ‘Robert Hourigan’.

My English master would strongly disapprove of your using punctuation inappropriately; it is a poor point of style, making writing appear jerky. And your comments are at times expressed in this way. But then, to each his own. And your faux pas did, after all, enable me to identify the hand behind those comments; it was your signature, so to speak.

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12.45

And no, ‘Robert’, you do not ‘put your name to anything (you) write’, since we have now established that you post under ‘Anonymous’ as well.

Liars rarely prosper for long.

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@1:22 pm

Your English master (interesting choice of words) should have brought to your attention that the adjective, “long-winded” is hyphenated.

But, your assertion about posting is incorrect; but, if it keeps you happy in your world…

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Robert Hourigan, I don’t believe you actually exist any more than the tooth fairy does, but I will grant that you are correct and your anonymous critic is incorrect.

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1.41
‘Longwinded’ can be written with or without a hyphen, as British English and American English (more frequently than ever now with the advent of social media) cross geo-linguistic boundaries.
I prefer the American version, ‘longwinded’, as it is less fussy, easier to type, and it saves time. Altogether, much more convenient, Mr, er, ‘Hourigan’.

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@ 2:19 pm

It is noteworthy that “long-winded” is hyphenated in the Oxford English Dictionary and in the Cambridge Dictionary of English. Of course, the former is more authoritative than the latter. It is further of note that “long-winded” is also hyphenated in the dictionary compiled by Merriam-Webster. As you will appreciate, but some readers of Pat Buckley’s blog may not be aware — this is the dictionary that informs the spelling conventions in what masquerades as “American English”. I noted that you hyphenated geo-linguistic, although by common spelling convention it is normally not hyphenated even in academic literature, but, I would hyphenate same. As I utilise speech recognition software to dictate all my correspondence (including this reply) I have no concerns about typing.

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2.48

The first sentence of your comment is a strawman, since it bears no relevance whatever to my post at 2.19, in which I mentioned ‘longwinded’ as a variant spelling in American English. The Oxford English Dictionary and the Cambridge Dictionary of English, dual linguistic pillars in British English, do not have the same authority in that language’s trans-Atlantic cousin.

And American English does not, as you snootily stated, masquerade as anything, least of all as itself. American English, along with a variety of other forms of English, is recognised internationally by linguists and grammarians as a respectable variant of a mother tongue.

What is conventional in American English, as in other forms of English, is determined by a variety of sources; and what is conventional for some may not be conventional for others. Indeed, such sources deemed authoritative in, for example, British English are sometimes influenced by those deemed less so (popular usage, for example, in terms of phonetics and spelling), and the latter adapt accordingly. This is why the American pronunciation of ‘project’ (PRAW-ject, as opposed to PRO-ject in traditional British English) is now accepted as conventional by ALL such sources. Language evolves through daily expression, and through international commerce, so to refer to Merriam-Webster as if it were the only source of linguistic conventionality in American English is myopic.

‘Geo-political’ is the objectively correct expression since, in this usage, both terms qualify a noun collectively rather separately.

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4.07: Brilliant clarity and an excellent response to condescending, smarty boots, Hourigan, a tiresome snooty old farthead!!

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@2.16 p.m.

I can assure you that I do exist. Pat Buckley and yours truly communicate quite frequently, so he can attest I am a real person. However, I am grateful for your kind acknowledgement.

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Doesn’t work. Only takes people to your personal Facebook page. If you don’t have a Facebook account you can’t view mass.

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Can Jardine inform us as to the status of Stephen Connolly in Glasgow.
Is he still a priest in good standing. He seems to be making a good living as a funeral celebrant. A number of my friends have attended funerals where he has officiated .
Does he get a stipend from RCAG and does he live in a church property in Bishopbriggs?
Just asking !

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Father Stephen Connelly is currently out of active ministry and happily living with his partner in a homosexual relationship. At funerals he officiates at are carried out in an independent context.

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If he is out of ministry he’s no longer ‘Father’
Is he still on the payroll at Clyde St?
Is he living in the ‘Briggs in a place of grace and favour?

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He came to a financial arrangement with the Bishop. He gets a good ’retirement’ package in exchange for keeping quiet.

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I’m afraid to tell you that Jardine died of COVID on Friday evening. But Zombie Taggart will be able to give you your information on all things Scottish as soon as his eyeballs grow back.

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This comment has offended me. I am not dead. I’m in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Govan, Glasgow after being admitted on Tuesday. Thanks be to God I didn’t need ventilation. My consultant has said I can go home tomorrow all being well. Also, Stephen Connolly is a dear friend of mine and left Ministry several years ago and is NOT being paid by the Archdiocese, nor is he living with a partner. Even if he was, it is nothing to do with anyone on here, so leave him alone. Mungo’s Mammy et all are just trouble makers.

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You can’t trust the wee scotties. All making up stories about each other, claiming each other is dead or ill and generally bitching.

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If clergy leave and head off to do their own thing, then the decent thing they can do is to stop sponging on us while they take time to make up their minds. Go get a job like everybody else. The likes of Roreeeee et al should take note.

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@4:07 pm
I am very grateful that you took the time and went to the trouble to reply. This is the kind of debate I really enjoy. Professionally, for reasons, that I will not bore you with on the blog, I know quite a bit about dictionary-making; I might even have a PhD in the subject. A search of the Corpus of Contemporary American English suggests that long-winded is hyphenated, and “longwinded” is not a commonly recorded spelling convention in the United States.
I do not agree that the Cambridge Dictionary of English is as authoritative as the Oxford English Dictionary. In the judgments handed down by the superior courts of England and Wales, objectively, the OED is cited as the book of authority. Dublin-based senior counsel, particularly for judicial review will utilise the OED as an aid to statutory interpretation. In the same way the late Justice of the Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia would not countenance anything else other than Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition. But, I do agree with your observation that to solely refer to Merriam-Webster would give a less than objective overview; but, not everybody is interested in the etymological development of language, and how it is recorded.
I am going to be busy for the rest of the evening, so I will not be able to continue with this debate. However, I will leave you with the following quotation. In light of your considered reply, I feel you will find it of interest.
“The writing of a dictionary … is not a task of setting up authoritative statements about the ‘true meaning’ of words, but a task of recording, to the best of one’s ability, what various words have meant to authors in the distant or immediate past. The writer of a dictionary is a historian, not a lawgiver.”
S.I. Hayakawa, How Dictionaries Are Made (1939).

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The OED is the final authority used by Hansard in Parliament and in Stormont on spelling and style matters.

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4.47
I did not state that ‘longwinded’ was the conventional spelling in American English; I mentioned only its inclusion here, which you have since confirmed, and the reasons for my preferring it to ‘long-winded’.
Nor did I state, or imply, that the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries were held in equal regard by social or other convention in these parts. On the contrary, I stated only that they were ‘dual’ (not ‘twin’) linguistic pillars in British English, which indeed they are. To have stated otherwise might have suggested that I believed them to have universally equal status, which, of course, would be untrue. Hence my choice of adjective, ‘dual’.
Thank you for quoting Hayakawa. Technically, he was correct. Unfortunately, his setting out the objective of dictionary compilation is one disregarded by a great many people (you referred to some of them today, including yourself), who continue to treat one such work, the Oxford English Dictionary, as a supreme authority. A tendency, I assume, with which Hayakawa would disagree.

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What’s all this shite about the OED and hyphens ? Let’s stick to the important substance of what this blog is about – namely, the hypocrisy and dysfunctional lifestyle – most of it homosexual – of so many Roman Catholic clergy and bishops, and the great damage they have done over the decades to so many people and to society and the Church itself. That’s the important thing. I like people to be able to write understandable English of some description, but please let us not get hung up on the fine minutiae of written English. There are some thickos who can’t write English, but I just scroll past them. So make your point as best you can and stop getting all prissy and particular about whether a comma is in the right place or a word should by hyphenated or not. Just tell me about the fucked up nature of clergy and bishops and how they have misled us for so long, and how we can change things for the future. Please !

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Yes, clergy and bishops who make promises / vows and then don’t keep them, but get their end away, live a nice life at our expense, tell us what we should be doing, abuse young kids. And think that we are stupid and don’t notice. That’s what gets me. Okay ?

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7:38 with the red picture. Ive been following your comments for weeks now. You are a reject sem from the UK. You ask many questions of others – why don’t you tell us your story? I wonder

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7.05: Pity You, sir. What you want is a little grace of truth. Your OTT summary is bizarre and perpetuates the LIE that all clergy are “at it”. If lying helps your arguments, continue. You seriously need to look beyond this blog for TRUTH. Your outburst against those who seek grammatical and dictionary clarifications is proof that your intelligence is limited. What you really want are sexual thrills…fantasies and orgasms through reading about the sexual failings of others. Gutter living truly belongs to you.

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@6:28 pm

You are a gentleman and without question a fine scholar of the English language. You have my respect and admiration. Yes, I do treat the Oxford English Dictionary as the supreme authority for academic reasons that I will not refer to herein. For this blog, I write in free-flowing style. Academically and professionally, I would never start a sentence with a co-ordinating conjunction. I am, however, completely fine with the split infinitive. At the time of writing, I am in company, but I saw your gracious reply, and I wanted to acknowledge same.

With my best wishes to you.

Robert

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