‘Histories of Protestant Limerick’ book explores experience of community during Ireland’s revolutionary period

Histories of Protestant Limerick essays draw on a wide range of traditional and hitherto largely untapped local archival sources

Histories of Protestant Limerick, a collection of essays is part Limerick’s Decade of Centenaries programme 2023

Limerick City and County Council’s Decade of Centenaries programme for 2023 continues with the publication of a new collection of essays edited by Dr Seán William Gannon, Limerick City and County Library Service, and Dr Brian Hughes, Department of History, Mary Immaculate College.

Histories of Protestant Limerick, 1912–1923 comprises ten original essays authored by established and emerging scholars exploring the experience of Limerick’s Protestant communities during the revolutionary period, when they formed less than 5 percent of the population.

The Histories of Protestant Limerick essays draw on a wide range of traditional and hitherto largely untapped local archival sources (including the archives of St Mary’s Cathedral, the Limerick Young Men’s Protestant Association, and the newly discovered Robert Donough O’Brien papers held at Mary Immaculate College) to examine aspects of political, religious, economic, and social life in the city and county in 1912–1923. Under this aspect, they chart the courses taken by Limerick’s Protestant communities to meet the challenges that they faced during this time.

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Dr Ian d’Alton examines the unionist/loyalist politics central to Limerick Protestant life. Dr John O’Callaghan discusses the anti-Protestant sectarianism to which these politics, amongst other factors, could give rise, while Robin Roddie documents the revolutionary experience of Limerick’s Methodist (including Palatine) communities.

In separate contributions, Craig Copley Brown looks at life in St Mary’s Cathedral and the Limerick Young Men’s Protestant Association in 1912–1923, while the Revd Professor Patrick Comerford takes as his focus Limerick’s ordinary churches and their congregations and their experience of revolution and war. Hélène Bradley-Davies and Paul O’Brien use the recently discovered papers of the Alice Craven Trust to shine a spotlight on the Protestant poor, specifically widows, while Professor Terence Dooley and Dr Conor Morrissey chart the decline of Limerick’s Protestant landed gentry in the longer revolutionary period. Finally, Dr Deirdre Nuttall looks at Limerick Protestants in early independent Ireland.

A limited number of print copies are available through Limerick City and County Library Service’s Local Studies Department and an e-book version of this volume may be downloaded from the Limerick Museum here.

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