Talk:John Charles McQuaid

What is this supposed to mean? As far away from POV-neutral as one can imagine…
"After McQuaid was buried under the High Altar in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, he was quickly forgotten, as his successors struggled, unsuccessfully in the end, to fend off what became known as 'the liberal agenda'."

That is really how the article ends at present. What a joke.Stealstrash (talk) 00:58, 26 September 2014 (UTC)

Regroup into controversies section?
There's no mention of his possible role in | the abuse of symphysiotomy; however, that topic needs better sourcing than the link I noticed.

The section on child sex abuse (both individual and condoning) might combine with that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Abb3w (talk • contribs) 14:15, 3 February 2015 (UTC)


 * @Abb3w Dedicated controversies sections are deprecated. - Sitush (talk) 18:12, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

Style
There are far too many quotations in this article and yet despite that it reads in many places as if the opinion of the WP editors is being stated. Really very poor: needs more paraphrasing, less editorialising, and a whole bunch of very basic MOS-type issues fixing. - Sitush (talk) 12:18, 4 February 2023 (UTC)


 * I've just noticed that there are a fair few identical phrases in this article to those published here. Not sure which came first but if we took from that publication then we must attribute it, preferably inline because it gets really messy if the attribution is just dumped generically at the foot of our articles. Further, if we took from there then the close paraphrasing, as well as the direct copying, will require resolution. The last update noted there is 2009. - Sitush (talk) 14:45, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * This is probably of use. To our modern eyes, at least, McQuaid was corrupt and draconian in quite a few respects and I'm not convinced this article at present really reflects the perception of him that seems to be common amongst those Irish Catholics whom I know. - Sitush (talk) 15:33, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * And this. There are loads more. It isn't about tarring him but rather presenting a neutral, balanced article. It is important to bear in mind that people such as Prof Keogh grew up in the McQuaid era & as such were directly influenced by it: their opinions are valid but perhaps skewed. - Sitush (talk) 15:43, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Good catches. It's clear that you're quite invested and so I wonder if you might consider taking on the project of a modern, accurate and neutral re-write of this musty, blinkered and biased article yourself? forestflyer (talk) 01:41, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
 * @Forestflyer I don't know masses about him and am editing/researching using a mobile phone at the moment, which isn't conducive to anything major. It's just so blindingly obvious that this article is terrible! - Sitush (talk) 09:08, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I hear ya. While it is a travesty, it's not worth ruining your eyes over. Your observations will help others re-do it, though! forestflyer (talk) 09:16, 5 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree, the article needs significant cleanup, including expansion of the intro to summarize the article, and reduction in size of the body, including removing the excessive quotations. I agree with the two maintenance tags and . Consigned (talk) 21:31, 6 May 2024 (UTC)
 * @Oona Wikiwalker I added back the tag, it's still relevant because the article uses excessive quotations. Consigned (talk) 08:56, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * In that case, Template:Over-quotation would be more appropriate. Oona Wikiwalker (talk) 14:36, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * That works, thanks - Consigned (talk) 17:40, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Homosexual abuse claims are rumour, not fact
At the moment we have a section, tagged with "undue weight" where far too much attention is given to a footnoted rumour from an unpublished essay by Noel Browne, where the unproven story says that McQuaid "attempted" to engage in homosexual activity with a boy in a Dublin pub. This is not a scenario like Brendan Smyth (for example) where it is all proven and a matter of public record. Perhaps it needs to be subsumed under the section on his handling of abuse? JustAChurchMouse (talk) 22:35, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

Why I removed the file McQuaid_de_Valera_(cropped).jpg
The uploader dated the photo to 1940 and asserts that it is their own work. Anyone able to hold a 1940 camera to take the photo would be highly unlikely to be living and editing Wikipedia in 2020, when the photo was uploaded. The uploader may be claiming rights to a derivative work but cropping a person from a photo doesn't usually qualify for that. Oona Wikiwalker (talk) 06:32, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Thanks for pointing it out. Due to the age it could possibly be public domain, but the experts at Wikimedia Commons would know better. I've nominated the image, and the one that it was cropped from, for deletion at Wikimedia Commons (c:Commons:Deletion requests/Files found with John Charles McQuaid). If you see any other potential copyright violations please go over there and nominate them for deletion (c:COM:Deletion, "Nominate for Deletion" button in sidebar). Funny enough, if the photo does end up being deleted, it could be uploaded again on Wikipedia (not Commons) under Fair Use. Consigned (talk) 08:51, 14 May 2024 (UTC)