Ireland has long been regarded as a 'land of saints and scholars'. Yet the Irish experience of Christianity has never been simple or uncomplicated. The Rise and Fall of Christian Ireland describes the emergence, long dominance, sudden division, and recent decline of Ireland's most important religion, as a way of telling the history of the island and its peoples. Throughout its long history, Christianity in Ireland has lurched from crisis to crisis. Surviving the hostility of earlier religious cultures and the depredations of Vikings, evolving in the face of Gregorian reformation in the 11th and 12th centuries and more radical protestant renewal from the 16th century, Christianity has shaped in foundational ways how the Irish have understood themselves and their place in the world. And the Irish have shaped Christianity, too. Their churches have staffed some of the religion's most important institutions and developed some of its most popular ideas. But the Irish church, like the island, is divided. After 1922, a border marked out two jurisdictions with competing religious politics. The southern state turned to the Catholic church to shape its social mores, until it emerged from an experience of sudden-onset secularization to become one of the most progressive nations in Europe. The northern state moved more slowly beyond the protestant culture of its principal institutions, but in a similar direction of travel. In 2021, fifteen hundred years on from the birth of Saint Columba, Christian Ireland appears to be vanishing. But its critics need not relax any more than believers ought to despair. After the failure of several varieties of religious nationalism, what looks like irredeemable failure might actually be a second chance. In the ruins of the church, new Columbas and Patricks shape the rise of another Christian Ireland.

Until surprisingly recently the history of the Irish Catholic Church during the Northern Irish Troubles was written by Irish priests and bishops and was commemorative, rather than analytical. This study uses the Troubles as a case study to evaluate the role of the Catholic Church in mediating conflict. During the Troubles, these priests and bishops often worked behind the scenes, acting as go-betweens for the British government and republican paramilitaries, to bring about a peaceful solution. However, this study also looks more broadly at the actions of the American, Irish and English Catholic Churches, as well as that of the Vatican, to uncover the full impact of the Church on the conflict. This critical analysis of previously neglected state, Irish, and English Catholic Church archival material changes our perspective on the role of a religious institution in a modern conflict.

A fully documented history of Ireland and the Irish from the fifth to the ninth centuries.

Published in association with the Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement and the American Society for Irish Medieval Studies, this exciting new book features twelve essays from an international panel of experts on religious landscapes. They explore the dynamic relationship between settlement and the church, spanning the dawn of Christianity, the Middle Ages and the post-medieval eras. Clearly written and profusely illustrated, this volume shows how, over the centuries, the church formed a core component of settlement and played a significant role in the creation of distinct cultural landscapes in Ireland. [Subjects: Medieval History; Irish History; Early Christianity]

"O'Connell presents an excellent biography of the first archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, who rose from poverty to become an internationally known clerical figure and friend of presidents. . . . Well written and well researched, this biography brings to life an important figure in American religious history. Recommended."--Library Journal

The history of Britain and Ireland is incomprehensible without an understanding of the Christian faith that has shaped it. Introduced when the nations of these islands were still in their infancy, Christianity has provided the framework for their development from the beginning. Gerald Bray's comprehensive overview demonstrates the remarkable creativity and resilience of Christianity in Britain and Ireland. Through the ages, it has adapted to the challenges of presenting the gospel of Christ to different generations in a variety of circumstances. As a result, it is at once a recognizable offshoot of the universal church and a world of its own. It has also profoundly affected the notable spread of Christianity worldwide in recent times. Although historians have done much to explain the details of how the church has evolved separately in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, a synthesis of the whole has rarely been attempted. Yet the story of one nation cannot be understood properly without involving the others; so, Gerald Bray sets individual narratives in an overarching framework. Accessible to a general readership, The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland draws on current scholarship to serve as a reference work for students of both history and theology.

This book radically reassesses the reform of the Irish Church in the twelfth century, on its own terms and in the context of the English Invasion that it helped precipitate. Professor Ó Corráin sets these profound changes in the context of the pre-Reform Irish church, in which he is a foremost expert. He re-examines how Canterbury's political machinations drew its archbishops into Irish affairs, offering Irish kings and bishops unsought advice, as if they had some responsibility for the Irish church: the author exposes their knowledge as limited and their concerns not disinterested. The Irish Church, its Reform and the English Invasion considers the success of the major reforming synods in giving Ireland a new diocesan structure, but equally how they failed to impose marriage reform and clerical celibacy, a failure mirrored elsewhere.

The monastic sites of early Christian Ireland have always been an attraction to visitors. Now issued in a new edition, this book is intended for use by those who wish to understand the religious and secular life of early Ireland. The authors have used the site remains and historical source material to reconstruct the life of Irish monks and laymen from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Here the reader will find treatments of the function of monasteries in early Ireland, the daily life of their inhabitants, and the significance of their art and sculpture. The appendices include a county-by-county guide to the most interesting early Christian sites.

This book details the records of each of the 8 major Irish denominations and their value for family history, and for church and local history. The locations of the records of each church, and guidelines for their access, are provided.