DONAL Murray was Cardinal Desmond Connell's protege.He was rated by Connell as the brightest student he taught in his 35 years as a professor of metaphysics at University College, Dublin.
A brilliant academic career appeared to lie ahead of the Dublin-born -- and Blackrock College educated -- Murray when he was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin in 1966.
He was sent by then Archbishop John Charles McQuaid to Rome for postgraduate studies at the Angelicum University, where he was awarded his doctorate in divinity in 1969.
During the 1970s and 1980s he taught in the Dublin diocesan seminary at Clonliffe and the Mater Dei Institute in Drumcondra. In 1973 he was appointed a lecturer in catechetics and ethics at UCD.
Ironically, Murray overtook his former professor and was an auxiliary bishop in the Dublin archdiocese for six years before Connell's surprise elevation to Archbishop, by the late Pope John Paul II, as successor to Kevin McNamara in 1988.
It was the cardinal who is credited with Murray's promotion to Bishop of Limerick in 1996 on the death of the ultra-conservative, Jeremiah Newman. The aim was to bring intellectual firing power into the ranks of the Bishops' Conference.
On this, Murray delivered. He was chairman of the Bishops' department of Catholic Education and Formation, and also chaired the Bishops' Commission on Bio-ethics. A prolific author, he was a member of the Bishops' Commissions on Doctrine and Europe.
It was on the pastoral front, however, that, in his own words, he showed inexperience and naivety in his bad handling of a complaint against paedophile cleric, Fr Thomas Naughton during his spell as auxiliary bishop in Dublin.
In Limerick, Murray proved to be a hard-working bishop setting up parish councils and renovating St John's Cathedral. He even sold the traditional bishop's palace, moving into a modest house.
He also set up, in Limerick, best practice procedures for safeguarding children and was on the Bishops' Liaison Committee for Child Protection.
But his past mistakes, as a Dublin auxiliary, caught up with him in his condemnation by the Murphy Report.
Although he said his conscience was clear and that he did not intend stepping down, pressure mounted in the media for him to step down, aged 69, some six years ahead of the normal retirement age of 75.
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