Chapters from Priests and People in Ireland.

Four Dublin chapters from Priests and People in Ireland (1902), Michael J. F. McCarthy’s critical account of Catholic clerical influence on Irish life.

McCarthy was a Catholic layman who had already examined Irish society in Five Years in Ireland, 1895–1900. In this book he argued that the dominance of the clergy stifled lay initiative and left the poor neglected. The book ranges across Ireland; the chapters reproduced here are those dealing with Dublin. He supports his case with figures from the Irish Catholic Directory for 1902 and with reports and sermons quoted from Dublin newspapers such as the Freeman’s Journal and the Evening Telegraph of 1901–02. The text is openly polemical and is presented here as a historical document of its time.

• Chapter XVI, In Catholic Dublin (continued), opens on a September Sunday in 1901 in the Phoenix Park, then turns to the tenements, public-houses and the Mecklenburgh Street district, for whose condition he holds the clergy responsible.
• Chapter XVII, The Priests’ Army in Dublin and its Work, counts the parish clergy and religious orders of the city and county and describes Sunday mass, missions and sodalities.
• Chapter XVIII, The Dublin Regular Priests and their Work, surveys the orders in turn, among them the Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, Jesuits and Oblates.
• Chapter XIX, The Christian Brothers and a Story, discusses their schools and the Artane Industrial School.

Chapter   XVI. In Catholic Dublin Continued.

Chapter XVII. The Priests’ Army in Dublin and its Work.

Chapter XVIII. The Dublin Regular Priests and their Work.

Chapter XIX. The Christian Brothers and a Story.

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