Money and Irish Catholicism : an intimate history, 1850-1921 / Sarah Roddy, Maynooth University.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roddy, Sarah, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--Ireland--History--19th century.

Catholic Church.

Catholic Church--Ireland--History--20th century.

Laity--Catholic Church--History--19th century.

Laity.

Laity--Catholic Church--History--20th century.

Church finance--Ireland--History--19th century.

Church finance.

Church finance--Ireland--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 272 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

In the decades after the Great Famine, from about 1850, the Irish Catholic Church underwent a 'devotional revolution' and grew wealthy on a 'voluntary' system of payments from ordinary lay people. This study explores the lives of the people who gave the money. Focusing on both routine payments made to support clerical incomes and donations towards building the vast Catholic infrastructure that emerged in the period, Money and Irish Catholicism offers an intimate insight into the motivations, experiences, and emotions of ordinary people. In so doing, it offers a new perspective on the history of Irish Catholicism, focused less on the top-down exploits of bishops, priests, and nuns, and more on the bottom-up contributions of everyday Catholics. Sarah Roddy also demonstrates the extent to which the creation of the modern Irish Catholic Church was a transnational process, in which the diaspora, especially in the United States, played a vital role

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title page

Imprints page

Dedication

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Intimate Economic History

What's in a Donation?

Chapter Structure

1 Paying and Praying: The Evolution of Regular Religious Payments

Supporting the Parish

Regular Payments

Robbing Patrick to Pay Peter

Conclusion

2 Hatching, Matching, and Dispatching: Priest Payments and the Life Cycle

Stole Fees in Context

Marriage, Baptism, and Churching

Extreme Unction, Funerals, and Masses for the Dead

3 Counting the Pennies: Religious as Financial Managers

Learning Money

Managing Money

Shaping Money

4 Showing, Telling, and Not Telling: Money and the Material in the Church Interior

Making Space

Personal Memorials

Intimate Spaces

5 Gambling for God: Lotteries, Raffles, and Prize Draws

'Drawings of Prizes'

Class, Gender, and Geography

Morality, the Law, and the Slow Decline of Catholic Prize Draws

6 Jolly Begging: The Emotions of Overseas Fundraising Tours

Going to America

'A slow, thankless, harrowing sort of occupation. . .'

'it was only in the old country that real happiness and enjoyment were understood'

Select Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 20 Feb 2025).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781009456654

1009456652

9781009456678

1009456679

9781009456685

1009456687

OCLC:

1461848897