This book explores the religious, political and social fortunes of Waterford’s minority Church of Ireland community during a turbulent period in Irish history. In the decades under consideration, an emerging and strident Catholic democracy eroded the power and social position of a once powerful ruling class. Waterford’s fearful and confused Anglicans took refuge and found consolation in a community which defined itself increasingly in denominational terms. This denominationalism came to be characterised by its Protestant evangelicalism and loyalty to the union with Britain. A unique insight is given into provincial Anglicanism, with a detailed examination of the character of its religious life and practice. There is a particular focus on one of the most controversial figures in the nineteenth century Anglican Church, Robert Daly, Bishop of Waterford, 1843-1872. Described by a contemporary as ‘a Protestant Pope’, this cleric inspired admiration and loathing, as he strove to resist the advances of an increasingly confident and vibrant Catholic Church. Studies of bishops of the nineteenth century Protestant Church have been largely conspicuous by their absence, but this book makes a valuable and original contribution to a glaring hole in this area of historiography. This study of Waterford’s Anglicans adds significantly to our understanding of the nature of Irish Protestantism at a time of crisis and decline.

Religious conflict in Ireland has had a long history. Faith, Famine, and Faction is a case study of religious conflict in the copper-mining community of Bunmahon, Co. Waterford, Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century. By the time an English evangelical clergyman, Rev. David Alfred Doudney, came to the area in 1847, intense exploitation of its copper resources had begun. Depression in the industry followed by famine and its legacy, spurred Doudney to initiate educational establishments to help the poor and deprived of the area, children particularly. These initiatives brought him into conflict with Catholic clergy who suspected him of engaging in proselytism. Doudney was more interested in encouraging a more vital Christianity in opposition to the nominalism he found around him, whether among Catholics or Protestants, than he was in forced religious conversion. However, such a distinction was not clear at popular level. In the rising tensions that ensued and against the backdrop of a suspected suicide, Doudney was the object of bigoted opposition, a narrow xenophobia, and of threat to his life, that together forced his departure. Not without blemish himself, Doudney articulated a strong anti-Catholic rhetoric common to the Victorian age, which he directed against the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church.

Thomas Meagher is the biography of the father of one of Ireland’s most famous patriots, Thomas Francis Meagher. Overshadowed by his son, he was a man of deeply held political and religious principles, who, through his philanthropic works and political career, helped shape the character of nineteenth-century Ireland and deserves to be remembered in his own right. The book charts the complete story of Meagher, from his birth to Irish parents in Newfoundland, to his death in Bray in 1874. Most of his life was spent in Waterford city and it was there that he would establish himself as champion of political and religious equality, holding mayoral and parliamentary offices, while also working for the alleviation of suffering for the working classes, particularly during the Great Famine. A staunch follower of Daniel O’Connell, his career was strongly linked to the ongoing fight for repeal and Catholic rights. Broderick also looks at the fascinating and complex relationship Meagher had with his son, Thomas Francis, which mirrored the age-old conflict between constitutional and revolutionary nationalism in Ireland. Illuminating the history, not only of the man, but also the times in which he lived, this is a very human story set against the backdrop of great political turbulence.

This study examines, within a chronological framework, the major themes and personalities which influenced the outbreak of a number of Evangelical clerical and lay secessions from the Church of England and Ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century. Though the number of secessions was relatively small-between a hundred and two hundred of the 'Gospel clergy' abandoned the Church during this period-their influence was considerable, especially in highlighting in embarrassing fashion the tensions between the evangelical conversionist imperative and the principles of a national religious establishment. Moreover, through much of this period there remained, just beneath the surface, the potential threat of a large Evangelical disruption similar to that which occurred in Scotland in 1843. Consequently, these secessions provoked great consternation within the Church and within Evangelicalism itself, they contributed to the outbreak of millennia! Speculation following the 'constitutional revolution' of 1828-32, they led to the formation of several new denominations, and they sparked off a major Church-State crisis over the legal right of a clergyman to secede and begin a new ministry within Protestant Dissent.