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This collection begins on the premise that, until recently, religion has been particularly influential in Ireland in forming a sense of identity, and in creating certain versions of reality. History has also been a key component in that process, and the historical evolution of Christianity has been appropriated by the main religious denominations - Catholic, Church of Ireland, and Presbyterian - with a view to reinforcing their own identities. This book explores the ways in which this occurred; the writing of religious history, and some of the manifestations of that process, forms key parts of the collection. Also included are chapters discussing current and recent attempts to examine the legacy of collective religious memory - notably in Northern Ireland - based on projects designed to encourage reflection about the religious past among both adults and school-children. Readers will find this collection particularly timely in view of the current ´decade of commemorations´.

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Illustrations and tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Notes on contributors
Foreward Toby Barnard
Introduction Jacqueline Hill and Mary Ann Lyons
Part I Historiography and Religious Polarisation, c.1600-c.1938
1. Towards a Catholic history for a Catholic nation: the contribution of Irish émigré scholars in Europe, c. 1580- c. 1630 Mary Ann Lyons
2. Writing about eucharistic belief and practice among historians of Protestantism in seventeenth-century Ireland
Evie Monaghan
3. Telling the Presbyterian story in eighteenth-century Ireland: John McBride and James Kirkpatrick Robert Armstrong
4. Laying the nineteenth-century foundations: contributions from a Catholic and a Protestant scholar in the 1820s Jacqueline Hill
5. Writing medieval Irish religious history in the nineteenth century
Elizabeth Boyle
6. William Dool Killen (1806-1902): a Presbyterian perspective on Irish ecclesiastical history
Laurence Kirkpatrick
7. History-writing, collective memory and identity in an Irish context: George V. Jourdan and R. Dudley Edwards
Miriam Moffitt
Part II Ideology and practice: perceptions and uses of the religious past in the wider Irish community, c.1700-1980
8. Preaching history, 1749: the Belfast sermons of Gilbert Kennedy and James Saurin Raymond Gillespie
9. Bishop O´Beirne and his church-building programme: the Church of Ireland and pre-Reformation Christianity Caroline Gallagher
10. Negotiating the middle ground: Thomas Moore on religion and Irish nationalism John B. Roney
11. Using the Irish language to further the aims of two bible societies: an analysis of Irish-language bibles in the Russell Library, Maynooth Barbara McCormack
12. History and destiny in the making of the Irish Catholic spiritual empire Irene Whelan
13. Religion as identity: the Church of Ireland´s 1932 Patrician celebrations Ian D´Alton
14. ´Patrick, the first churchman´ in the Protestant vision of Ernest Bateman of Booterstown (1886-1979) Eugenio F. Biagini
Part III Religious history: practice and reconciliation c.1980s to the present
15. The 1641 depositions and the history classroom
Eamon Darcy
16. St. Patrick´s Day: commemoration, conflict and Conciliation, 1900-2013 Brian Walker
17. Perceptions of Irish religious history among community activists in Northern Ireland, 2010-2013 John Wolffe
18. Reconciling memories reconsidered: reflections on a 1988 Irish reconciliation classic in light of three decades of scholarship and political experience Joseph Liechty
Select bibliography

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