This book, the result of years of research, outlines in popular and readable style the history of the Diocese of Elphin (Ireland) from Patrician times until the end of the second millennium. It is a compendium of historical detail on the thirty-eight parishes, on the clergy and religious, and on a host of other aspects of the life of the diocese. The extensive bibliography will be a treasure trove for historians, researchers, students and anyone interested in Irish ecclesiastical history.

This study is concerned with the social, religious and occupational structure of a rural community on the western shore of Lough Ree in the century preceding the Great Famine. It traces the unprecedented rise in population and examines some attempts by landlords to deal with this rise. Land ownership and occupation is discussed and the Catholic/Protestant relationship examined. As the nineteenth century progressed, this rural community came increasingly under the influence of national agencies involved in the provision of educational and welfare services.

The Catholic Diocese of Ossory includes most of County Kilkenny, a portion of Leix, and one parish in Offaly.