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Life
1882-1963 [Cardinal Archbishop]; b. 11 Oct., Claremorris, son of Joseph D’Alton, a Mayo shopkeeper, and Mary [née Brennan]; nephew of E. A. D’Alton [q.v.]; ed. Blackrock College, from 1895; entered seminary at Clonliffe College; grad. Royal Univ. (RUI/NUI BA 1st, 1904); proceeded to Irish College in Rome; grad. D.D. and ord. in Rome, 1908; travelled in Italy and Greece and studies at St. Edmund"s, Cambridge; appt. Prof. of Classics at Maynooth, 1912; chair of Greek, 1922; vice-president, 1934, and president of Maynooth College; 1936;
appt. co-adjudicator of Meath, 1942, and succeeded as bishop, 1943; appt. archbishop of Armagh, 13 April 1946; preached inaugural sermon at Ottawa Cath. (Canada), 1947; awarded Hon DLitt, from QUB, 1952; created cardinal by Pius XII, 11 Jan. 1953 and greeted by large crowds on his return from Rome; issued Horace and His Age (1917) and Selections from the Writings of St. John Chrysostom (1940); strongly anti-communist and opposed to extension of the welfare state, believing it the moral responsiblity of the individual to provide for their own needs as far as possible - but also spoke of clerical abstention from politica decisions;
spoke publicly against Partition in Ireland, which he held to be counter to God’s plan, regarding Ireland as ‘one and individual’; propounded a federal solution based on provinces; received the Freedom of Sligo, 14 July, 1954; represented the Irish Hierarchy at the International Eucharistic Congress in Rio de Janeiro, 1955; d. from heart disease in a Dublin nursing home, Feb. 1963; his funeral was conducted on 1 Feb. 1963 [reported with photo in the Irish Indpendent on 2 Feb. 1963; NLI]. DIW RIA/DIB
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Works
Horace and His Age: A Study in Historical Background (1917), xii, 296pp. [see details]; Roman Literary Theory and Criticism (London: Longmans, Green 1931; rep. NY: 1962), viii, 608pp. [Bibl., p.565ff.]; Selections from the Writings of St. John Chrysostom (London: Burns & Oates 1940), viii, 394pp.
Lentan Pastorals, & pamphs.: The Social Teaching of the Church (Dublin: CTSI 1948), 20pp.; The Lay Apostate (Dublin: CTSI [1957]), 20pp.; The Church and Freedom (Dublin: CTSI 1952); The Priesthood (Dubin: CTSI 1958), 14pp.; The Unity of the Church (Dublin : Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, 1959), 20pp.
Also foreword to Letters from Maynooth: Calendar of Letters of Rev. Eugene Conwell, 1798-1805, ed. by Revd. Bro. Luke [2nd edn.; Rev. & enl.] (Dundalk: Dundalgan Press 1942), 62pp., ill. [front, geneal. table].
Bibliographical details
Horace and His Age: A Study in Historical Background (1917), xii, 296pp. [Chaps.: 1. Horace and Roman politics; 2. The Augustan revival; 3. Horace in religion and philosophy; 4. The period of the Epistles; 5. Horace and social problems; 6. Horace and popular beliefs; 7. Literary criticism.
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References
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (1984), J. F. D’Alton, later Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh, produced Horace
and His Age (1917), and Roman Literary Theory and Criticism (1931) at Maynooth (p.169)
COPAC lists John Francis D’Alton, author of Horace and His Age: A Study in Historical Background (London: Longman, Green 1917); Roman Literary Theory and Criticism: A Study in Tendencies ([NY:] Longmans, Green & Co. 1931) and Rev. J. F. D’Alton, Selections from St. John Chrysostom (London: Burns, Oates & Washburne 1940).
[ See Diarmaid Ferriter, ‘John Francis ’Alton’, in Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA 2009) - online. Cites death on 2 Feb. 1963 though contemp. newspapers report his funeral on that day - presumably having occurred n the preceeding one.]
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