When Paul Cullen, Ireland’s first Roman Catholic Cardinal, died in October 1878, he was widely understood to have been both the dominant Irishman of his generation and a figure of global importance.

The Times of London declared that for the previous 26 years: “No man in the kingdom has exercised a greater personal influence, or wielded more absolute power”; the New York Times called him “a power in the land” and the Sydney Freeman’s Journal published a six-page supplement commemorating his life. Requiem Masses were celebrated throughout the world, his coffin was drawn through the streets of Dublin in an open hearse, escorted by mounted police, and followed or observed by at least 100,000 people. Trains and trams were halted, flags were lowered, and the city ground to a halt.

Many thousands more paid their respects at the Pro-Cathedral (now St Mary’s Cathedral) in Marlborough Street before the gates were finally closed. When he was buried the next day in a small vault beneath the chapel of Clonliffe College, there could be no doubt at all that his had been a consequential life.

Some 143 years later, it was very different: Clonliffe had been sold, its contents auctioned, and the chapel closed. Cullen would have to be moved. This was done quickly and discreetly on the morning of June 25th 2021.

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