Catholicism in Ulster, 1603-1983: An Interpretative History

Rafferty, Oliver P.

ISBN 10: 0717121747 / ISBN 13: 9780717121748

Published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 1994

About this Item

PB original without inscription. Photographs and further details of this book or other titles not presently listed. My main speciality is IRISH BOOKS. To see other books on this subject click on: "MORE BOOKS FROM THIS SELLER" and then type in IRISH under KEYWORDS, which can be filtered further by history [which includes politics], literary , topography & "Art". I have built up my collection over 30 year and I am constantly acquiring new stock. Do contact me for more information of further titles not presently listed.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1624640423064

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Catholicism in Ulster, 1603-1983: An Interpretative History
• Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0717121747
• ISBN 13: 9780717121748
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Irish history

About this title

Synopsis

From the final defeat of the Ulster chieftains at the hands of the British to the remarkable success of Sinn Fein - the political wing of the Irish Republican Army - in the 1983 Westminster elections, Catholicism in Ulster, 1603-1983 tells the story of the Roman Catholic community in the Irish province of northeast Ulster. In his comprehensive chronicle, Oliver Rafferty contends that the unique historical experience of Ulster Catholics sheds light on the sectarian roots of a crisis that has become a paradigm for religious and ethnic conflicts throughout the world.
Rafferty explains that to understand the Northern Irish Catholic community, one must first understand its view of itself as a community under siege - a mentality he traces to a seventeenth-century settlement and plantation system that left Ulster as the only Irish province with a significant Protestant population. Bereft of political power and economic security, the Irish community grasped Catholicism as the only means of preserving its identity, and according to Rafferty, this attachment, gave Ulster Catholics a cohesion that they retain today.
Rafferty points out that despite poverty and persecution, Ulster Catholics historically have not supported nationalist sentiment with the same fervency as their co-religionists in the Republic. He discusses how only a minority of Ulster Catholics supported IRA efforts from the 1920s through the early 1960s and how, in the midst of Protestant majority oppression, Catholicism flourished in Northern Ireland. Rafferty evaluates the influence of the Catholic hierarchy and tracks the rise of the lay middle class Civil Rights movement. Concluding that Protestant hostility toward Catholics is greater than Catholic animosity toward Protestants, Rafferty cites Protestant fanaticism and misconception as the true stumbling blocks to reconciliation in the region.