NIO minister viewed Sean Brady as ‘more republican’ than predecessor Cahal Daly

Mr Ancram’s non-public secretary circulated a notice of a November 12, 1996 assembly between the minister and new Catholic primate Sean Brady.

The notice, declassified on the Public Report Workplace in Belfast, stated: “The minister felt this was an attention-grabbing assembly which demonstrated the numerous distinction in data and perspective between Archbishop Brady and his predecessor.

“Brady is rather more of an quaint republican but additionally appears much less properly knowledgeable. The minister feels there’s work to be performed right here and he intends to repeat this train to clarify HMG’s place.”

Two years earlier, in a December 12, 1994 despatch from the British Embassy in Dublin, the British Ambassador stated that the Papal Nuncio had phoned that day to tell him that Sean Brady, then a parish priest in Cavan, can be introduced as the brand new Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh, the presumptive successor to Cardinal Daly. the next day.

The Ambassador stated: “The Nuncio defined that Rome had initially wished a diocesan bishop for the job, however had modified their minds. He thought that Brady, who had spent 13 years within the Irish Faculty in Rome, a lot of them as rector, can be a well-liked selection within the church right here.

“Brady shouldn’t be identified to us.”

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