- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
-
1 Gaelic and Catholic in the early middle ages -
2 Island of saints and scholars -
3 The devotional landscape of medieval Irish cultural Catholicism inter hibernicos et inter anglicos, c.1200–c.1550 -
4 Irish political Catholicism from the 1530s to 1660 -
5 The ‘absenting of the bishop of Armagh’ -
6 Henry Fitzsimon, the Irish Jesuits and Catholic identity in the early modern period -
7 Gaelic Catholicism and the Ulster plantation -
8 Irish-language sources for Irish Catholic identity since the early modern period -
9 The penal laws against Irish Catholics -
10 Irish Catholic culture in the nineteenth century -
11 The voices of Catholic women in Ireland, 1800–1921 -
12 Irish diaspora Catholicism in North America* -
13 Brethren in Christ -
14 The ‘greening’ of Cardinal Manning -
15 Power, wealth and Catholic identity in Ireland, 1850–1900 -
16 The Esmonde family of Co. Wexford and Catholic loyalty -
17 Catholic Unionism -
18 Identity and political fragmentation in independent Ireland, 1923–83 -
19 Secular prayers -
20 Catholic-Christian identity and modern Irish poetry -
21 Northern Catholics and the early years of the Troubles -
22 Irish identity and the future of Catholicism - Index
Secular prayers
Secular prayers
Catholic imagination, modern Irish writing and the case of John McGahern
- Chapter:
- (p.321) 19 Secular prayers
- Source:
- Irish Catholic Identities
- Author(s):
Frank Shovlin
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
Decline in respect for the Catholic Church in Ireland was mirrored in Irish writing over the last fifty years. John McGahern had more reason than many to feel aggrieved at the church. Dismissed from his job as a primary school teacher at the behest of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, McGahern’s second novel The Dark (1965), was one of the last great cause célèbres of Irish literary censorship. Despite his avowed atheism McGahern’s writing provides a penetrating analysis of what it means to be an Irish Catholic. He always insisted that the church was his first book, and his use of difficult concepts such as grace and blessing have exerted a powerful and moving influence on modern Irish writing.
Keywords: McGahern theology atheism Catholic-motifs literature
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
-
1 Gaelic and Catholic in the early middle ages -
2 Island of saints and scholars -
3 The devotional landscape of medieval Irish cultural Catholicism inter hibernicos et inter anglicos, c.1200–c.1550 -
4 Irish political Catholicism from the 1530s to 1660 -
5 The ‘absenting of the bishop of Armagh’ -
6 Henry Fitzsimon, the Irish Jesuits and Catholic identity in the early modern period -
7 Gaelic Catholicism and the Ulster plantation -
8 Irish-language sources for Irish Catholic identity since the early modern period -
9 The penal laws against Irish Catholics -
10 Irish Catholic culture in the nineteenth century -
11 The voices of Catholic women in Ireland, 1800–1921 -
12 Irish diaspora Catholicism in North America* -
13 Brethren in Christ -
14 The ‘greening’ of Cardinal Manning -
15 Power, wealth and Catholic identity in Ireland, 1850–1900 -
16 The Esmonde family of Co. Wexford and Catholic loyalty -
17 Catholic Unionism -
18 Identity and political fragmentation in independent Ireland, 1923–83 -
19 Secular prayers -
20 Catholic-Christian identity and modern Irish poetry -
21 Northern Catholics and the early years of the Troubles -
22 Irish identity and the future of Catholicism - Index
