Of Time and the City: The Doyles and London Print Culture

This article examines Arthur Conan Doyle's status as a ‘London’ writer. It places his own experiences of the city within the same historical frame as that of his father, his uncles, and his grandfather. The Doyles had spent decades working in London print culture before Conan Doyle had even been born, and it is helpful to understand his early struggles to make his name as part of this longer literary-historical narrative. The London Doyles were able to establish their names as artists, illustrators, and writers before the tectonic plates of printing technology and public taste shifted beneath them. The article also focuses on the Doyles' status as a family of immigrant Irish Catholics who found that their faith, as well as their politics, made them perpetual outsiders.

Why did Pope John Paul II visit Ireland? The 1979 papal visit in context

Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979 was an iconic moment in the history of twentieth-century Irish Catholicism. It has, however, received little detailed historical scrutiny. Based on state archival and hitherto unavailable diocesan material, this article contextualizes the visit by explaining the pastoral and leadership challenges that confronted the Irish hierarchy. Second, this article discusses how close the pope came to visiting Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. This was of concern not just to the hierarchy but to the Irish and British governments. Third, the organization of the visit, which was closely tied to the pastoral concerns of the Irish bishops, is surveyed. Lastly, the pastoral impact of the visit is considered. If the Catholic hierarchy hoped that the papal visit might arrest the declining institutional influence of the Catholic Church, reverse a quiet but growing faith crisis, or hasten a cessation of violence in Northern Ireland, then those expectations were misplaced. Ultimately, the pastoral impulse of the 1979 papal visit to Ireland was to preserve rather than renew the Irish Catholic tradition at a time when Irish Catholics were fixed on future material advancement rather than fidelity to their spiritual past.

‘Scrupulous and Timid Conformism’: Ireland and the Reception of the Liturgical Changes of Vatican II

The Second Vatican Council and, in particular, its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, changed much in the daily life of the Church. In Ireland, a country steeped in the Catholic tradition but largely peripheral to the theological debates that shaped Vatican II, the changes to liturgy and devotional practice were implemented dutifully over a relatively short time span and without significant upset. But did the hierarchical manner of their reception, like that of the Council itself, mean that Irish Catholics did not receive the changes in a way that deepened their spirituality? And was the popular religious memory of the people lost through a neglect of liturgical piety and its place in the interior life, alongside what the Council sought to achieve? In this essay, Dr Gary Carville will examine the background to the liturgical changes at Vatican II, the contribution to their formulation and implementation by leaders of the Church in Ireland, the experiences of Irish Catholic communities in the reception process, and the ongoing need for a liturgical formation that brings theology, memory, and practice into greater dialogue.

Resettlement of British and Irish Catholics to Continental Europe in 16th—18th Centuries

The problem of large-scale migration of British and Irish Catholics to continental Europe in the 16th—18th centuries is investigated. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the religious schools of Catholics in Europe were seen as examples of pious communities, the foundations on which the emerging traditions of religious tolerance, stability and commercial prosperity were built in England. It is noted that this fueled the arguments of the supporters of liberal religious reforms in the UK in the 19th century. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that the study of the movement of Catholics to Europe makes it possible to reveal the degree of influence of religious schools on British politics and public opinion, to understand how the expatriate community in exile functioned, adapted and communicated. Migration has been proven to be most intense during the Elizabethan period and early Stuart reign, but its impact on religious life in Britain and Ireland was felt over a longer period, until the end of the 18th century. The authors conclude that for Catholics who remained in England, religious institutions in Europe were not only a source of supply of missionary priests and religious literature, but also a link with the continental Counter-Reformation.

Confessional Mobility of Secular Catholics

Chapter 3 analyzes how religion structured and inflected the migration and internal movement of Catholics. It explores the confessional dimension of the periodic exodus of large numbers of mercenary soldiers and the development of Catholic mercantile networks in exile. It also examines how famine and war resulted in displacement of large numbers of Irish Catholics, some of whom found refuge on the continent, but many of whom perished without record.

Migrant Consciousness and Catholic Confessional Identity Texts

Chapter 8 argues that migrants and exiles played a critical role in the elaboration of notions of Catholic identity in Ireland. It concentrates in particular on three authors from the early seventeenth-century—Peter Lombard, David Rothe, and Philip O’Sullivan Beare—who helped develop the notion that the Irish population was inherently Catholic and inscribed this idea in a particular delineation of history in which St Patrick and medieval Irish saints figured prominently. Close analysis of these texts reveal the profound influence of exilic experience on the writing of these various authors, and the ideas which they put forward came to exert an enduring influence on the self-understanding of Irish Catholics.

Divided loyalties: St Joseph’s Nudgee College, the Great War and Anzac Day, 1915–39

St Joseph’s Nudgee College is an Irish Christian Brothers boys’ boarding school in Brisbane. It was established in 1891 to provide the children of Irish Catholics living in regional and remote Queensland and northern New South Wales with access to an education that would act as a vehicle for socio-economic advancement. The first decades of the college’s existence were nevertheless defined by two competing, sometimes contradictory imperatives. An often-belligerent determination to retain an Irish identity existed side by side with an awareness that a ‘ghetto mentality’ would hinder the socio-economic advancement of Queensland’s Catholics. The balancing act that this necessitated was particularly evident in the College’s mixed reaction to the outbreak of war in 1914 and the subsequent reticence to celebrate Anzac Day between 1916 and 1939. This article explores the College’s response through its Annuals (Year Books) and places it in the context of the Australian Irish Catholic experience of war and commemoration.

Irish in Ontario during the Victorian era

This paper discusses the immigrant Irish in Ontario during the Victorian era. Through analytic lenses of xenophobia and social inclusion the historic period is analyzed in the context of immigration and settlement. The two major groups discussed are the Protestant Orangemen and the Irish Catholics. The ruling Protestant class had a great deal of influence over the settlement of the Irish Catholics as this paper discusses. The exclusion and inequity of the Irish Catholics within Ontario is the crux of this paper.

Irish in Ontario during the Victorian era

This paper discusses the immigrant Irish in Ontario during the Victorian era. Through analytic lenses of xenophobia and social inclusion the historic period is analyzed in the context of immigration and settlement. The two major groups discussed are the Protestant Orangemen and the Irish Catholics. The ruling Protestant class had a great deal of influence over the settlement of the Irish Catholics as this paper discusses. The exclusion and inequity of the Irish Catholics within Ontario is the crux of this paper.