Ar Dheis Dé Go Raibh a Anam

For six years the successor of St Patrick, Ireland's senior prelate -- the Isle's retired primate Cardinal Cahal Daly -- died tonight in Belfast aged 92.

Archbishop of Armagh from 1990-96, Daly was created a cardinal by John Paul II at the consistory of 1991. Prior to his appointment to Ireland's premier see, he served as bishop of Down and Connor -- the North's largest diocese -- from 1982, three years after reportedly writing the famous homily at Drogheda on the country's "fratricidal struggle" given by the late pontiff on his 1979 pilgrimage there.

In his retirement, Daly remained active, penning several books... and telling the national press just earlier this month that the revelations of decades of abuse and cover-up recently exposed in Dublin were "almost beyond belief."

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