When he takes up his appointment next month, Bishop Murphy-O'Connor (67) will serve as the 10th Archbishop of Westminster, succeeding the late Cardinal Basil Hume who died last year.
Born on August 24th, 1932, in Reading, Berkshire, he is the fifth son of Dr George Murphy-O'Connor and his wife, Ellen. Dr Murphy-O'Connor and his wife moved to Britain from Cork in the 1920s and were related to the Murphy brewing family. They settled first in Liverpool and moved to Reading, where Dr Murphy-O'Connor worked in a medical practice.
Bishop Murphy-O'Connor was educated at the Presentation College in Reading, before going on to Prior Park College, Bath. During the second World War, he attended the Presentation Brothers school in Cork while staying with his grandparents. He began his training for the priesthood in 1950 at the English College in Rome. While in Rome he read for a degree in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University. He was ordained in Rome on October 28th, 1956.
His first appointment in England was to Corpus Christi parish, Portsmouth. In 1963 he moved to the Sacred Heart parish in Fareham, Hampshire, as an assistant priest. Three years later he became private secretary and chaplain to the then Bishop of Portsmouth, the Right Rev Derek Warlock.
A short appointment as a parish priest in Southampton ended in 1971 when he was made rector of the English College in Rome, with responsibility for training students for the priesthood. During his appointment he acted as host to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Donald Coggan, when he visited Pope Paul VI in 1977.
In 1977 Dr Murphy-O'Connor was appointed Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, where he has served until his nomination as Cardinal Hume's successor.
A first cousin of the newly-appointed archbishop, Father Kerry Murphy-O'Connor, parish priest of Glounthaune in Cork, said last night he was thrilled with the news and had been in touch with his cousin to congratulate him.
"We are very close, he comes over every year for holidays . . . There is a long tradition in our families of priests and nuns and all of us are delighted that he has been elevated in this way. Of course, he will get the red hat but we can't say just now when that will happen. "My grandmother would have been so proud to be alive on hearing this news," he added.
Father Murphy-O'Connor said he and other members of the family would travel from Cork to London for the installation of the new archbishop.