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It is normal Vatican practice to announce the acceptance of a diocesan bishop's resignation that has been offered as required on reaching 75 together with the appointment of the new bishop.
The appointment in this case of an elderly bureaucrat without parish experience can only be part of a holding strategy on the part of the Vatican and not the promise of a new dawn for Irish Catholicism.
There is no "position" of auxiliary bishop in any diocese. An auxiliary bishop is appointed only at the express request of the diocesan bishop who must establish that he requires such an assistant. Often auxiliaries find themselves in a kind of clerical limbo when a new bishop is appointed who doesn't need them.

I'm not sure it's accurate to describe him as "without parish experience" but he certainly fits the bill of other failed Irish bishops. It'll be a long holding strategy as he's got ten years before retirement.

Auxiliaries should be the very rare exception and not machines for confirmation and dispensations.

I thought the aim of the Vatican was to cut the number of bishops in Ireland. Is it not the case that a bishop in, for example, Germany, has around 6 times as many Catholics living in his diocese as one in Ireland? If it is true that this replacement lacks valuable skills perhaps this would facilitate a policy of restructuring the Church in Ireland?

I was a pupil of the outgoing Roman Catholic bishop of Clogher and a few years behind Liam McDaid when he was a student in St Macartan's College, Monaghan. Although I don't now practice as a Roman Catholic my experience of these 2 men is very positive. The new bishop has accepted an extremely challenging position at a difficult time, I wish him every success in representing Christ in his pastoral duties. Ironic nonetheless that he is taking on a new job (at circa 65) when most of us are put out to pasture.

While there are still a number of vacant positions in the Irish episcopate, the swift appointment of Monsignor McDaid to Clogher points away from an imminent restructuring of the Irish diocesan map, which has been much discussed on this blog, on "Sunday Sequence", and elsewhere.

Further to newlach's comment (#3), a strategy for consolidating the multiple dioceses of the Irish Catholic church seems at best still to be at draft stage.

In response to the fifth comment, I wouldn't call the appointment of Monsignor McDaid swift. Bishop Duffy submitted his resignation to the Vatican in February 2009; his successor was appointed just over fifteen months later.

Tabala (#6)

Fair enough...