Cardinal Paul Cullen was born at Prospect House near Ballitore, County Kildare, on 29th April 1803, and was educated at the Quaker School there. He studied for priesthood at Carlow College and the College of Propaganda , Rome, where he was ordained in 1824. He became Rector of the Irish College in Rome in 1832. He was appointed Archbishop of Armagh and Apostolic delegate in 1850. As representative for the Irish bishops, he sought to counteract British influences at the Vatican. On his advice Pope Gregory XVI condemmed the Queen's College ( Trinity College ) and urged the Irish bishops to establish a Catholic university.
In 1850 he summoned and presided over the first National Synod held in Ireland since the 12th Century in Thurles in County Tipperary. He was transferred to Dublin as Archbishop in 1852 and used his influence to improve social conditions by constitutional means, abhorring the Young Ireland and Fenian movements. Nevertheless his petition to the Crown saved the Fenian leader Thomas F Burke from hanging. The founding of the Catholic University in 1854 and the appointment of Cardinal Newman as first Rector where largely due to his support. He was a strict disciplinarian and worked hard to improve the morale and education of the clergy.
Clonliffe College, the Dublin diocesan seminary, was founded by him in 1859. He was frequent visitor to Rome and took a leading part in the first Vatican Council, and is said drafted the dogma on papal infallibility. He became Irelands first Cardinal in 1866 and died in Dublin in 1878, and is buried at Clonliffe College.
There is a commemorative stained glass window to Paul Cullen in Crookstown Church near his birthplace in County Kildare.