Cardinal Sean Brady has been Primate of All Ireland since 1996 and in the last few years he has been forced to deal with the damaging fallout from two reports into clerical abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland.
Two major reports into child sex abuse were published — the Ryan report, which looked at abuse within Catholic institution, and the Murphy report which examined a massive abuse cover-up in the Dublin diocese.
In 2010 it emerged that Cardinal Brady had been present when children signed vows of silence over allegations of abuse made against paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth in 1975.
He had previously apologised for his role in mishandling the case of the serial child abuser.
As a result he faced a number of calls to resign from his position.
A short time later, in April 2010, the 72-year-old cardinal was rushed to hospital after becoming ill in front of a packed congregation during a confirmation service.
In March this year he vowed to continue leading the Catholic Church in Ireland in the wake of a damning Vatican report on the handling of clerical abuse.
Speaking after the Vatican expressed its “dismay and betrayal” at the “sinful and criminal acts” by Catholic clergy guilty of child abuse across Ireland, Cardinal Brady said he was determined to stay at the helm of the Church through the crisis.
The report said “innocent young people were abused by clerics to whose care they had been entrusted” and found that “ those who should have exercised vigilance often failed to do so effectively”.