WALSH, William Joseph. - Irish archbishop and primate, one of the principal promoters of the creation of a free Irish Republic, b. Jan. 30, 1841, in Dublin, d. there Apr. 9, 1921.
He was educated at the famous Maynooth College under Newman (v.) and, after ordination, held in the same college the positions of professor of theology (1867), vice-president (1878), and president. In 1884 he was promoted to the archiepiscopal see of Dublin, to which is attached the primatial dignity of Ireland. A steadfast defender of the civil rights of Irish Catholics against the political, social, cultural, economic, and agricultural inequality to which the Irish were subjected, he also worked to restore full equality in the field of education and schools.
As the bishops' representative on the parliamentary commission, famous under the name of the Bessborough Commission (1869), against the great English landowner Leinster, he contributed greatly to the formation of the law concerning the problem of Irish land ownership (Land Act, 1881). Two years later, Walsh published a clear explanation of the same law in his work *A Plain Exposition of the Land Act of 1881* (Dublin 1883). Connected with this issue is another famous book, dealing directly with monetary affairs but indirectly with Irish questions of land restitution: *Bimetallism and Monometallism. What They Are and How They Bear upon the Irish Land Question* (2nd ed. Chicago 1893; 3rd ed. Dublin 1894). In the field of theological studies, he founded in 1880 the journal *The Irish Ecclesiastical Record*. On educational, especially university, issues, he wrote: *Queen’s College and the Royal University of Ireland* (Dublin 1883). In 1889 he became a commissioner for education and served public education as a member of various committees and commissions; he delivered famous speeches, later published as *Irish University Question: The Catholic Case. Selections from Speeches and Writings of the Archbishop of Dublin* (ibid. 1897). Walsh desired a Catholic university, since the only university in Dublin was Protestant (Trinity College). His publication *The Irish Educational Question* had a great impact among members of the English Parliament and led to the establishment of two commissions (1903, 1906) to study the problem, and to the foundation of the National University of Ireland with colleges in Dublin, Cork, and Galway for Catholics.
In 1888 Walsh turned to the issue of Home Rule and prepared, to illustrate the question in Rome itself, a work in Italian: *La questione agraria irlandese*. Shortly before the publication of the work, while Walsh was in Rome, the Holy Office issued the condemnation of *The Plan of Campaign and Boycotting*, which had provoked some criticism in Ireland. Walsh’s thought, inspired by due subservience, is known from letters to Cardinal Manning (May 5, 1888) and to the editor of the *Freeman’s Journal* (May 7, 1888). Later he allowed himself some criticism. He did not disapprove of the 1916 Irish rebellion against England during World War I, but by then his health was already in decline. He died Apr. 9, 1921.