Popular Catholicism in 20th-Century Ireland: Locality, Identity and Culture

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For much of the 20th century, Catholics in Ireland spent significant amounts of time engaged in religious activities. This book documents their experience in Limerick city between the 1920s and 1960s, exploring the connections between that experience and the wider culture of an expanding and modernising urban environment. Sle de Clir discusses topics including ritual activities in many contexts: the church, the home, the school, the neighbourhood and the workplace. The supernatural belief underpinning these activities is also important, along with creative forms of resistance to the high levels of social control exercised by the clergy in this environment. De Clir uses a combination of in-depth interviews and historical ethnographic sources to reconstruct the day-to-day religious experience of Limerick city people during the period studied. This material is enriched by ideas drawn from anthropological studies of religion, while perspectives from both history and ethnology also help to contextualise the discussion. With its unique focus on everyday experience, and combination of a traditional worldview with the modernising city of Limerick all set against the backdrop of a newly-independent Ireland - Popular Catholicism in 20th-century Ireland presents a fascinating new perspective on 20th-century Irish social and religious history.

Reviews

In this highly original and compelling book, Sle de Clir investigates the dynamism and creativity of the everyday world of Catholics in Limerick and makes a major contribution to Irish social and religious history. * Diarmuid Giollin, Professor of Irish Language and Literature, University of Notre Dame, USA *
Popular Catholicism in 20th-Century Ireland employs a rich and lively source base to explore fascinating questions about the role of religion in forming identities and sustaining communities in an urban setting. This micro-history of Limerick offers a suggestive framework for other studies of the spatial, sensual and material beliefs of Irish Catholics in the decades before the Second Vatican Council. * Alana Harris, Lecturer in Modern British History, King's College London, UK *
De Clirs research is meticulous and her arguments are well presented. While her work is grounded in a strong theoretical framework, the author makes extensive use of oral testimony and this book remains accessible and engaging throughout. * British Catholic History *

Author Bio

Sle de Clir is a Lecturer in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Limerick, Ireland.