I believe George Bernard Shaw was spot on when he quipped: I am an atheist and I thank God for it.

I can count on one hand the number of times I darkened the doors of a church these last 30 years.

But it would be below the belt to use the outgoing Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martins retirement as an excuse to now bash the Church ad nauseam.

It would be like shooting fish or rather Ichthys in a barrel.

You have to know when to pick your David versus Goliath battles, which is something Archbishop Martin would tell you himself after being on the losing end of so many in recent years.

He was ordained a priest aged 24 in 1969 and no doubt there mustve been times during these 50-odd years when he felt like throwing in the towel.

So, it would be mean-spirited not to doff your hat to someone sailing off into the sunset after spending their entire life in the same job.

I once interviewed Dr Martin and walked away with tremendous respect for the man himself.

The 75-year-old mightve lived in palatial splendour but he had the common touch something desperately lacking in his two arrogant predecessors.

He never forgot his humble roots thanks to the hardships in his own early life.

He first lived with relatives in the inner city before his parents got a council house in Ballyfermot, Dublin, when he was aged five.

It probably explained why he could be found shopping in Lidl.

He joked: I have also been in Aldi and Tesco Im not going to go in for advertising!

Dr Martin never courted the limelight himself because he turned down most interview requests.

Archbishop Martin mightve had aspirations of becoming a BBC broadcaster in his youth, instead of possessing any great calling.

But he obviously didnt like hearing his own voice for the sake of it.

Its a real measure of the man that he only talked to the media when he had something important to say. Perhaps he learnt that from his older brother Seamus ironically an atheist who was a foreign correspondent for the Irish Times. He seemed to be someone who practised what he preached and had a love the sinner, hate the sin mentality.

His innate compassion shined brightly, like the sun does through a church stained glass window, when the elephant in the room raised its ugly head during our lengthy chat.

His voice became emotionally charged when he spoke to me about his tremendous anger towards those priests who sexually abused children.

On the downside, I was disappointed with how he danced around my question about the Church either covering up or turning a blind eye to abuse in some incidences.

But I admired how Archbishop Martin, who described himself as thick skinned, was able to handle the pressure of being first in the firing line at a time when the Church was constantly under attack.

He said: Im never one to have a martyr complex. Im never one to think, Wouldnt it be great to have been archbishop 20 years ago when everything was different? You cant live like that.

Now, it would be stretching credulity to hail him as some kind of maverick lone voice in the wilderness. He was not the type hell-bent on radically reforming the Church.

Archbishop Martin was a safe pair of hands and a team player, who was willing to toe the (hard)line for Rome.

In fairness, I think hell will freeze over before the Church softens its stance on abortion or civil partnership.

But I found it disappointing when he dismissed the idea of married priests. Perhaps Dr Martin wouldve been less mealy-mouthed if he wasnt speaking with his Archbishop hat on.

Considering he spent most of his vocation in Rome and knew the lay of the land there, I reckon he mightve made a good Pope.

I suppose thats the biggest compliment you could pay any man of the cloth.

Hes going to be missed and I wish him all the best in his retirement.

His successor Archbishop Dermot Farrell certainly has big shoes to fill.

More here:

Jason O'Toole column: It will be tough to follow in the footsteps of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin - Irish Mirror