The Irish Catholic Church: How did it become so powerful?

Irish History Podcast

Fin Dwyer

Ireland, Irish History, Norman Invasion, Great Hunger, Vikings, Interviews, History, War Of Independence, Great Famine

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over the past three decades, the Catholic Church has been engulfed by numerous sexual abuse scandals and accusations of power abuse. This has prompted many to question how it initially gained such influence in Ireland.

In this podcast, I delve into the history of the Catholic Church within modern Irish society. While its influence is often linked to the post-Irish Independence era of the 1920s, the foundations of Catholic power extend much further back. This episode charts the Church's dramatic rise since the 1780s, when it emerged from the Penal Laws and decades of repression. I reveal how it skillfully navigated through rebellions, the Great Hunger, and the struggle for independence, growing stronger with each crisis. Additionally, I explore the complex relationship between the Church and the British Empire, where bitter enmity in the 1700s transformed into a strategic partnership—a marriage of convenience that reshaped Irish history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If someone with no knowledge of Ireland or its recent history visited the country today,
0:11.9	they could be forgiven for thinking we're an extremely devout people.
0:16.4	Across the 32 counties, there are over 2,600 Catholic churches. And once you venture outside of cities,
0:24.6	these buildings are often the largest structures you encounter almost in every single community.
0:31.4	Some of these churches are monumental in scale and dominate the landscape for miles around. However, rather than being indicative
0:40.4	of Irish religiosity today, they are in many ways relics of a bygone chapter in our history
0:47.9	when the Catholic Church did exert enormous influence and control over the vast majority of the population.
0:56.2	However, there's no question.
0:57.9	Times have changed.
0:59.6	The crisis engulfing of the Catholic Church is well documented.
1:03.8	Sexual abuse scandals that have continued to emerge
1:06.7	over the last three decades have shattered the faith of many former Irish Catholics.
1:12.7	Where once entire communities gathered in churches,
1:16.4	priests celebrate mass in front of ageing and dwindling congregations.
1:21.8	However, that said, there is no question the power of the Catholic Church
1:26.2	until relatively recent times was extraordinary.
1:30.2	In the 1970s, mass attendance in Ireland stood at around 90%.
1:35.4	Now, while the church has come under severe criticism in recent decades, its own history
1:41.9	and the role of played in wider Irish history remains largely
1:45.5	unchanged and unchallenged. There's a widely held belief that the rise of the Catholic
1:50.8	Church in Ireland is intrinsically linked to Irish independence and that when the 26 counties
1:56.7	left the British Empire in the 1920s, this was the key moment in the history of the Catholic Church
	...

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