Daniel Murray was undoubtedly the outstanding Irish Catholic archbishop of the nineteenth century. He was a man of elegance and charm, ready to listen to others and to find good in them. To the redoubtable Bishop Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin, the archbishop was ‘an angel of a man’.His concern for the education of the poor led to the founding of the Irish Sisters of Charity and the invitation to Dublin of the Sisters of Mercy and the Irish Christian Brothers. His interest in the education of the middle class was manifested in the foundation of the Sisters of Loreto and in his support for the schools of the Jesuits and the Vincentians. A man of great pastoral energy, he built numerous churches and readily encouraged lay involvement in the work of the diocese. He was actively involved in assisting the Holy See in the appointment of priests and bishops around the world and his efforts to provide aid to the needy during the Great Famine, and the veneration and respect he inspired in his clergy, further contributed to the high esteem in which he was held. And yet, he is a virtually forgotten figure in Irish history.This neglect is related to the stance he took on some issues of the day – his support for certain government initiatives, his opposition to his clergy’s involvement in politics, and his caution about openly supporting Repeal.

Mary Peckham Magray argues that the Irish Catholic cultural revolution in the nineteenth century was effected not only by male elites, as previous scholarship has claimed, but also by the most overlooked and underestimated women in Ireland: the nuns. Once thought to be merely passive servants of the male clerical hierarchy, women's religious orders were in fact at the very center of the creation of a devout Catholic culture in Ireland. Often well-educated, articulate, and evangelical, nuns were much more social and ambitious than traditional stereotypical views have held. They used their wealth and their authority to effect changes in both the religious practices and daily activity of the larger Irish Catholic population, and by doing so, Magray argues, deserve a far larger place in the Irish historical record than they have previously been accorded. Magray's innovative work challenges some of the most widely held assumptions of social history in nineteenth-century Ireland. It will be of interest to scholars and students of Irish history, religious history, women's studies, and sociology.

Towards the end of the 20th century, the decades of abuse and neglect perpetrated in Ireland's comprehensive carceral network began finally to be exposed. The mistreatment endured by children and others on the margins of Irish society, notably women, in these orphanages, reformatory schools, industrial schools, psychiatric hospitals, County Homes, Mother and Baby Homes, adoption agencies and Magdalene Laundries now attracts increasing investigation and scholarship. Bringing together contributions from leading experts across a broad range of disciplines, including history, philosophy, law, archaeology, criminology, accounting and architecture, this book offers a comprehensive exploration of the Magdalene system through a close study of Donnybrook Magdalene Laundry in Dublin. To date, the Justice for Magdalenes Research group has recorded the names of 315 women and girls who died at Donnybrook Magdalene Laundry. By focusing on this one institution-on its ethos, development, operation and built environment, and the lives of the girls and women held there-this book reveals the underlying framework of Ireland's wider system of institutionalisation. The analysis includes a focus on the privatisation and commodification of public welfare, reproductive injustice, institutionalised misogyny, class prejudice, the visibility of supposedly 'hidden' institutions and the role of oral testimony in reconstructing history. In undertaking such a close study, the authors uncover truths missing from the state's own investigations; shed new light on how these brutal institutions came to have such a powerful presence in Irish society, and highlight the significance of their continuing impact on modern Ireland.