A detailed study of the political relations between church and state in modern Ireland, this work is also an analysis of domestic politics within the context of Anglo-Vatican relations. Dealing exclusively with high ecclesiastical politics, it assesses the relative political strength of both the British and the Irish at the Vatican and challenges 'the myth of English dominance over the Papacy'. Dermot Keogh traces the 'quiet diplomacy' of bishops, politicians and the Vatican from the turbulent years of 1919-21, through the civil war period and the rule of William T. Cosgrove and Cumann na nGaedheal, to the re-emergence of Eamon de Valera and Fianna Fail as exponents of Catholic nationalism in the 1930s. The book draws extensively on unpublished documents and, for the first time, explores with the aid of primary sources the exchanges between bishops, politicians and the Vatican over a twenty-year period. It is an important contribution to the history of modern Ireland, Irish-Vatican and Anglo-Vatican relations, whose findings will lead to a radical revision of interpretations of Irish church-state relations.

The Vatican's opening of its archives in 2006 for the period of the papacy of Pius XI (1922-1939) has prompted a burst of historical research which is not only shedding new light on the role of the Holy See and the Church in this period of extraordinary political and social turmoil, but also on some of the major world events of this period. In 2008, a number of institutions created a research network, bringing together scholars from different countries who are working in these archives and highlighting its emerging work to the broader scholarly community. This book represents the proceedings from a conference of this research network, held in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Brown University in October 2010. (Series: Christianity and History. Series of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna - Vol. 11) *** "As the essays reveal, such a historic decision will impact the way that scholars interpret modern church history for years to come. Yet, as coeditor Charles Gallagher, S.J., reminds us in his introduction, the opening will also allow scholars 'to uncover a history which is not only papal, but political, cultural, economic, and global' (p. 17)." - The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 100, No. 2, Spring 2014Ã?Â?

The book studies the use made by the British government of its envoy, immured inside the Vatican from 1940 to 1944, and what the envoy made of such opportunities during the Second World War to help the Allied cause. We see the Vatican, the Fascist Italy, from 'inside', and so gain a new and rare perspective into the predicament of the papacy. Owen Chadwick gives insight into the workings of the Vatican, including such questions as the struggle to keep Italy out of the war, the relations between the Vatican and the Fascist government, the use which the British sought to make of Vatican radio, the question of condemning atrocities, the bombing of Rome, the fall of Fascism, the armistice between the Allies and Italy, the German occupation of Rome, and the escape line for British prisoners of war. The author has used several groups of hitherto unexplored archives, and makes a fresh contribution both to the history of the Second World War and to the modern history of the papacy.