Analysis: New regulations forbade the participation of priests in social events such as dances and horse races, and led to an upsurge in attendance at mass
By Richard Mc Mahon, MIC Limerick
In August 1850, there was an historic national synod of the Catholic church in Ireland. The Synod of Thurles, held in the shadow of the Great Famine, 1845-1852, is often viewed as a pivot point for a 'devotional revolution', which saw the more sustained adoption of standardised forms of Catholicism in Ireland rooted in and inspired by direction from Rome. The hierarchy approved a series of regulations that confirmed and extended ongoing efforts to impose greater discipline and control upon the clergy and the wider church.
They forbade, for instance, the participation of priests in social events such as dances and horse races and banned the administration of sacraments in private residences, unless necessary. This meant that, from 1850, under the influence of Archbishop, later Cardinal, Paul Cullen, the Catholic church was in a much stronger position, to impose discipline on its clergy and to instil its teachings.
In this, it was also aided by the devastation wrought by the Famine, which saw the removal (through mass death and migration) of those who were arguably least inclined to embrace standard forms of Catholicism, or at least lacked the opportunities to do so. Before the Famine, there were fewer priests per head of population and a less well-developed infrastructure to accommodate worshippers than in the decades after the Famine.
In such circumstances, instilling church teachings in, and imposing discipline upon, lay Catholics was more difficult. The clergy themselves were sometimes sources of concern for, and of resistance to, church authorities. This can be seen in a case from circa 1820 where the parish priest of Kilchreest in the diocese of Kilmacduagh, Charles O'Regan, was accused of neglecting his clerical work in favour of drinking and tending to his farm. He was also reported to be living with a married Protestant woman. When attempts were made by the Bishop to remove him from his position, his congregation rallied to his cause and resisted the priest sent to remove him.
Such behaviour was more difficult to sustain in the post-Famine world. At the forefront of this shift was the adoption of the regulations of the Synod and an increasingly active and interventionist clergy. Under their supervision and guidance, practices reflective of Catholic orthodoxy thrived - including the devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Conception, novenas, the reciting of the rosary, the holding of retreats and pilgrimages and the building of shrines and new churches.
There was also a marked upsurge in attendance at mass. The missionary zeal of religious orders in Ireland was reflected in the increasing prominence of confraternities and sodalities over large areas of the country. There were also increasing numbers of nuns in the country who shaped key aspects of educational and social life on the island. Ultimately, the Synod helped to provide a framework for Catholic belief and practice in Ireland, inspired by Rome, that would profoundly shape the lives of people on the island (and beyond it) through the twentieth century and arguably up to the present day.
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Yet, its 175th anniversary in 2025 has largely gone unnoticed by historians and within wider public discourse. Moreover, despite the appearance of some brilliant studies of nineteenth-century Catholicism in recent decades, it is striking that new research in this area is dwarfed by other concerns, most notably studies of the revolutionary period of the early twentieth century.
This is despite the fact that a strong case could be made that the culture and politics of twentieth-century Ireland were shaped to a far greater degree by the thinking and practices of the 'devotional revolution' than the beliefs and actions of the revolutionary generation of the early decades of the twentieth century, who were themselves often pious products of prevailing Catholic orthodoxies.
Why then is there is so little enthusiasm among researchers to delve into the world of nineteenth-century Catholicism in Ireland? There is certainly no lack of enthusiasm for the commemoration of historical events, both on a local and national level, in Irish society. Perhaps, unlike the often still hotly-contested history of political upheaval, we feel that we already largely know the history of Catholicism in modern Ireland and there is less need to invest time and resources in confirming an already established narrative. This is a mistake.
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From RTÉ Archives, An episode of 'Survey' broadcast on 15 March 1977 on practice and belief among Ireland's Catholics
Catholicism can too easily be linked with a narrow nationalist and isolationist strain in Irish culture that was, in the late twentieth century, increasingly challenged and surpassed by a more progressive secularism rooted in an embrace of European norms. Yet, in their embrace of key aspects and central tenets of a standardised Catholicism and, indeed, in their admittedly less fulsome attachment to forms of republicanism and European liberalism, Irish Catholics in the nineteenth century also adopted and adapted some of the central features of major forces in western European culture.
This process, moreover, rather than representing the entrenchment of tradition was wholly consistent with, and arguably part of, a wider social and cultural change or of a 'modernisation' of Irish society. Indeed, particularly in its post-Synod guise, Catholicism proved for many (however misguided they may have been) a valuable counterweight to the corrosive impact of British interventions in Ireland and as an alternative pathway to ‘modernity’ rather than being a reaction against it. Yet, much of the history of these processes in Irish society remains strikingly under-studied and under-appreciated. The history of the Synod and that of nineteenth-century Catholicism merits far more attention than it has received heretofore.
On Thursday 4 December Mary Immaculate College will hold a symposium to mark the 175th anniversary of the Synod of Thurles.
Richard Mc Mahon is a Lecturer in History at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick and has published widely on the history of the nineteenth-century.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
