The 84th Master General of the Dominican Order, Father Damian Byrne OP., was born in Galway, Ireland, on January 8, 1929, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1955, having joined the Dominicans at the age of 20. Heading the Order's jurisdictions in Trinidad-Tobago, Mexico (an unusual accolade for a non-Mexican member of the Order) and Ireland, before being elected, in 1983, Master of the Dominican Order at its General Chapter in Rome, he remains the only the second Irishman to hold the Order's top office, which he led the Dominicans for nine years. With some attesting that at the end of his term in Office in 1992, he declined the offer of a bishop's post, he returned to his native Ireland, and in 1994 was appointed General Secretary of the Conference of Religious in Ireland, where he put great energy behind the motes to persuade the hierarchy to take the clerical child sex abuse scandal seriously. He also organised the first major seminars on the issue, and played an important role in the Bishops' Advisory Committee on child sexual abuse.

During his tenure as Master General, Father Byrne became well known for his defense of the controversial Domincian Flemish Theologian, Father Edward Schillebeeckx, who was at odds with the Vatican. When Byrne was elected, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was already investigating Schillebeeckx's views on the human nature of Christ, secularization and ordained ministry. The end result were some word changes in the theologian's writings, but no condemnation from the Vatican.

Father Byrne passed unexpectedly away in Dublin after suffering a heart attack on February 18, 1996, aged 67. Speaking shortly after his death, Cardinal Cahal B. Daly, then Primate of All Ireland, said that Byrne had made a "massive contribution to the Catholic Church, both in the service of his beloved Dominican Order and in the service of the Church worldwide", and that the Irish Church would be forever in debt for his "wisdom and commitment".