Introduction. Cullen, in a letter written from Dublin on 16 September 1850, to Sir Thomas Redington, Under-Secretary in Ireland, took the occasion to convey to him, and indirectly to Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant, his views on the controversial Queen's Colleges and the prerogatives of the Pope in Ireland. He declines the offer to be a Visitor of the Queen's College, Belfast.

Source. Peadar Mac Suibhne (ed), Paul Cullen and his contemporaries, with their letters from 1820-1902 (5 vols, Naas 1962), ii 60>

Dublin, September 16, 1850

… There is a further reason which renders it imperative on me to follow the course I have adopted. The Pope in his quality of Supreme Pastor of the Church, whose duty it is to lead the faithful to good pastures and to drive them away from poisonous ones, was consulted by all the bishops of Ireland on the question whether the education proposed to be given in the Queen’s Colleges could be considered safe and whether the Catholic youth of Ireland could frequent them without endangering their religious principles, and the answer the bishops received was that those establishments were grievously and intrinsically dangerous and that no Catholic prelate was at liberty to take a part in carrying them into operation. The experience, the wisdom, the authority of the Holy See leaves me no alternative but to follow its instructions.

Tomás O’Riordan