Analysis:For the first time, the Irish church has three cardinals, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
It is doubtful whether a Vatican appointment involving an Irishman has ever been as warmly received as the news yesterday that Archbishop Seán Brady is to become a cardinal.
One of the most genuine and well-liked figures in Irish public life, the announcement that he will be elevated to the College of Cardinals on November 24th has been greeted with satisfaction across the board of Irish ecclesiastical and secular life.
The news is also unprecedented in that for the first time in its history, the Irish Catholic Church has three cardinals - an event many had forecast as unlikely before yesterday, as it is well known the Vatican is anxious to move the composition of the College of Cardinals away from its heavy over-population by Europeans, not least in a world where half of the world's Catholics now live in the Americas.
Cardinal Cahal Daly and Cardinal Desmond Connell are ineligible to take part in a papal election as they are over 80 - the cut-off age for cardinal electors. Still, there did not appear to be an imperative to give Ireland a red hat on this occasion.
However, it will be most welcomed, particularly by those who were disappointed for Archbishop Brady in 2001 when, for the first time since 1885 when the then archbishop of Dublin, cardinal Edward McCabe died, the Irish red hat reverted to Dublin, with the elevation of Connell to the College of Cardinals in February that year.
That was unexpected and believed to be due to Cardinal Connell's many years service on Vatican congregations, particularly the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he served alongside Pope Benedict XVI and with whom he shared similar theological views and tastes in music.
Some saw it at the time as due recognition of the Dublin archdiocese as one of the largest and most important in Europe, with over one million Catholics, and forecast that from then on, the Irish red hat would be in Dublin. That is not to be.
It was also widely predicted for years that the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, was a "dead cert" for the red hat but that this would not happen until his - widely predicted - return to Rome on finishing his task in Dublin. He is also younger than Archbishop Brady and would still probably be too "youthful" for the College of Cardinals.
Even in 2001, while those around him made no attempt to conceal their upset on his behalf, Archbishop Brady gave no public indication he was disappointed at being passed over. The most that emerged was that he may have been concerned for the diocese and that it might have diminished Armagh's long-term status as far as the Irish Episcopal Conference was concerned. But yesterday would have seen an end to all that.
The announcement also means that there will soon be four Irish-born cardinals. As well as Archbishop Brady and Cardinal Daly and Cardinal Connell, there is Scotland's Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who rarely lets an opportunity pass to let Irish people know that he was born in Antrim.
Another man with Irish connections who will receive the red hat on November 24th is US-born Archbishop John Foley, who has served for many years in the Vatican and is currently grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a lay religious community that aims to protect the rights of Catholics in the Holy Land.