Cardinal William Conway, Primate of All Ireland From 1963-1977, Is Born

William John Cardinal Conway (22 January 1913 – 17 April 1977) was an Irish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965. He was head of the Catholic Church in Ireland during the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Conway was born in Dover Street, Belfast, on 22 January 1913 and baptised in St. Peter’s Pro-Cathedral. He was the eldest of nine children. His father, Patrick Joseph Conway, was a house painter and ran a paint shop near Royal Avenue; his mother, Annie Donnolly, came from Carlingford on the Cooley Peninsula in the north of County Louth. He attended Boundary Street Primary School, St Mary’s CBS (now St Mary’s Christian Brothers’ Grammar School, Belfast), Queen’s University Belfast; St Patrick’s College, Maynooth; and the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. He emerged with a doctorate in canon law summa cum laude tying for a gold medal with a German Jesuit.[