Two ways of doing things - the wrong way and Robert's way

That man there in Galway selling raffle tickets outside Dunnes in Terry land, the one with the clerical collar. He's the next Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. He says he can make £60 an hour selling tickets when he wears the collar. Fund-raising again.

He is the Dean-elect, to be accurate - until September, the man with the collar selling tickets remains the Very Rev Robert MacCarthy, rector of St Nicholas's collegiate church in Galway and provost of Tuam. Just about everyone was surprised last Monday when the unexpected happened and he was elected by the chapter at St Patrick's. He was surprised himself. "A lot of people would have expected a less angular appointment," he said, typically, noting later: "The bishops particularly don't feel comfortable with me."

If self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom, he is wise. Others like his angles, too, particularly younger clergy. "He will ruffle feathers that certainly need ruffling" was one observation. Another man welcomed the news particularly at a time when the Church of Ireland was "well-nigh swamped in ignorance, shallow popularising, theological architecture and liturgical yahooism".

Dr MacCarthy has been a member of the chapter and the cathedral board at St Patrick's since 1994. Since then he has been taking the bus to Dublin on a Monday every month. He finds driving tiring. Last Monday evening, after his election to one of the most prestigious posts in the Church of Ireland, the Dean-elect was not for turning. Rather, he was for returning to Galway by bus as before, which he did.

"He believes there are only two ways to do anything," said a colleague, "the wrong way and Robert's way." A clear thinker with definite views, he is a hands-on operator with a penchant for rolling up his sleeves, or wearing his clerical collar if required.

Dr MacCarthy attributes his strong individuality to the fact that there are "so many onlys in my life." He was an only child of an only Church of Ireland family in Newcastle, Co Tipperary, where he was the only non-Roman Catholic at the local national school where he was "like a piece of rare china". He recalled those times spent "sitting on a windowsill outside "[the classroom] while they [other pupils] were being belted through the rosary . . . and the catechism."

The family originally came from the Slieve Ardagh area where they were probably small farmers and Catholic. "How they found themselves on the winning side I don't know and I don't want to know," Dr MacCarthy has said.

After national school he attended St Columba's in Rathfarnham and then TCD. "Happy days. You could get in then for the asking on Inter Cert history."

He specialised in 18th-19th century Irish history and went on to Cambridge. It was there he realised he didn't want to teach, while studying for a diploma in education. He got a job in London with the Church Commissioners there who run the money affairs of the Church of England "and recently lost most of it".

It was the beginnings of a career in university administration which took him to Reading university, Queen's in pre-Troubles Belfast where he helped to start up the continuing Queen's Arts Festival, before becoming assistant administrator at Trinity.

He believes it "a great blessing that he had to earn a living" before becoming a priest. He did so for 12 years. "I will be the first dean who was not a career clergyman," he remarked. His father's death in 1971 precipitated his entering the church. He wished "to do something more significant than provide a nanny service for the well-off section of the community".

He studied for the ministry at Cuddlesdon College in England before becoming a curate in Carlow. There followed a period as librarian of Pusey House, Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College there before he became a curate in Bracknell New Town.

His experience there made him grateful for Ireland, where there was an implicit understanding of the church at least.

He was bishop's vicar in Kilkenny for two years, where he was also secretary of the arts week committee, and seven years in Castlecomer, which seems to have been a particularly happy experience. In both Kilkenny and Castlecomer he enjoyed close friendships with the Roman Catholic clergy, who were as ecumenically minded as himself.

He also believes his being a single man also helped. It has been a drawback in the Church of Ireland, however, where it meant "a great lot of prejudice when it came to parish appointments".

He went to Galway in 1995, "not an ecumenical city", as one church member described it.

He has been a major success in fund-raising there, as he had been in Castlecomer and as it is expected he will be in St Patrick's. But he sees his role as dean as far more than that. He hopes to build up the parish, through his beloved home visitations. He intends being a prophetic (critical) voice where church, State and community are concerned, and he intends raising £6 million for maintenance work on the cathedral.

"It's the job he wants . . . to be a thorn in the side of the bishops . . . it's a brilliant move for him and for St Patrick's," said one happy colleague. However, it was a senior church figure who put his finger on the real question. "It will be interesting to see how Robert will deal with the transition from iconoclast to icon," he said.