Sam Hanna Bell Samuel Beckett John Hewitt Bernard (Barney) Hughes James Joseph Magennis VC Frances Elizabeth Clarke Stewart Parker William Carleton Rosamond Praegar

Alan Alexander Buchanan (1907 - 1984):
Archbishop (Church of Ireland)


Buchanan was born at Fintona, Co. Tyrone, son of a solicitor, and educated at Masonic Boys' School, Dublin, and the University of Dublin where he graduated in modern history in 1928. He became a deacon in the Church of Ireland1930 and priest in that church in 1931, he served in curacies in various parts of the diocese of Connor, that is, largely speaking, County Antrim, this at a time of economic depression with sectarian violence; he worked in some curacies in economically deprived areas. In the Second World War he was an army chaplain serving in North Africa and Sicily. He was subsequently chaplain with the forces who took part in the notoriously Arnhem airborne attack in 1944. This was a military disaster, which some maintain prolonged the war, and certainly losses were heavy. The action was made even more famous in a 1977 film A Bridge Too Far. Buchanan as chaplain was assiduous and painstaking in the care of the numerous wounded, many of them badly so, with extremely limited medical supplies. He spent the rest of the war in captivity. After the war he had incumbencies in Belfast and Bangor. He was appointed Bishop of Clogher, that is, in the south-west of Ulster, in 1958, where he criticised certain local authority housing practices; many argue that it was exactly these in that area which helped spark the Troubles. He was elected Archbishop of Dublin 1969, and chaired the Church's "Role of the Church" committee. He also supported female ordination from an early date. He retired in 1977. The University of Dublin awarded him a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1959.



Born: 23 March 1907
Died: 4 February 1984
Richard Froggatt