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This chapter investigates the ways in which Irish and Scots place identities were mediated through discursive religious practice. It also addresses the nature of the religious networks which linked the major Irish and Scots denominations throughout the Empire. The policy of fostering Irish clericalism within the Catholic Church in Australia constituted one discursive network linking Australia and Ireland with other parts of the Empire. Churches were among the most important of all focal points for communities. Churches and other buildings attracted meanings that continuously changed according to time and circumstance. The Irish Catholic Church's transformation under the leadership of Cardinal Cullen privileged explicit missionary enterprise. Religious sites of the sort described here constituted an important part of the ever changing mosaic of semiotic meaning inscribed as place in the Australian landscape by hegemonic and subaltern groups in the white migration stream.

The role the Irish Catholic Church played in the Land War is the subject of this chapter. The chapter takes as its starting point the view that political consciousness is fundamentally about meaning – or the sense people make of their worlds, the significance they give to past and present experience and events, and their expectations and aspirations for the future. What is argued is that it was through an ongoing discursive process – born out of class and political conflict, economic crises and rapidly unfolding political contingencies – that a sense of national identity began to emerge that allowed disparate social groups (including the Catholic clergy) forge and maintain a political alliance strong enough to erode the landlord system and the legitimacy of British domination in Ireland.

These years mark the bloodiest of the conflict with the highest number of deaths. Priests, women religious, and the Irish Catholic hierarchy continued to find their voice in condemning violence and, in private moments, acted as mediators between the British government and republican paramilitary groups. However, ecumenical efforts between Protestant and Catholic Church leaders at this time remained limited. The English Catholic Church hierarchy began to publicly condemn republican paramilitaries as the IRA started to bomb England. The death of IRA member James McDade, after a bomb he planted in Coventry exploded prematurely, marked the first major schism between English and Irish Catholic Church doctrine and practice. This set a course of confusion over the Church stance on issues of suicide and excommunication that continued for the rest of the conflict.

This chapter presents the findings from a case study of Holy Cross Benedictine Monastery in Rostrevor. It describes how Holy Cross became the first Benedictine monastery to be established on the island for 800 years, before discussing how it is an example of extra-institutional religion. Holy Cross is seen by many as outside of the institutional Irish Catholic Church, because the monks have been willing to critique institutional responses to sexual abuse by clergy. The chapter also explores how Holy Cross functions as a haven for Christians from various traditions, empowers Catholic laity, creates safe spaces for Christians from multiple traditions, and inspires ecumenism. People who visit Holy Cross told stories of individual transformation. Though small-scale, these changes in people’s behaviour can be seen as contributing to wider processes of religious and socio-political transformation, as well as reconciliation.

This chapter presents the findings from a case study of the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) in Ballyboden, Dublin. It includes a history of the parish and its PPC, and explains how the PPC is an expression of extra-institutional religion. Ballyboden parishioners distinguish between the ‘institutional’ and the local church, speak of their concerns about a lost generation of Irish Catholics, and share their hopes for the Irish Catholic Church in fifty years’ time. They are painfully aware of the shortcomings of the Irish Catholic Church, are reluctant to articulate grand visions for the church, and are not convinced that their own personal, individual transformations can contribute to far-reaching change. Yet they locate their hope for the future of the church in the laity at the grassroots and good local priests—people they believe are living out the gospel despite the institutional church.

This chapter presents the findings from a case study of St Patrick’s United Church, a multiethnic, ecumenical (Methodist–Presbyterian) congregation under the care of the Methodist Church in Waterford City. It provides a history of the congregation, including growth fed by immigration. It explains how it can be considered an example of extra-institutional religion, focusing on its ambivalent relationship with the Irish Catholic Church, and apparent in how people spoke of being Christian in a post-Catholic Ireland, being Christian in a pluralist congregation, and rejecting the classical ecumenical project. It also analyses how St Patrick’s negotiates diversity, creating a multicultural haven that can serve as a model for other groups, although challenges remain around cultural differences and building cross-cultural relationships. It argues that St Patrick’s negotiates diversity more effectively than traditional congregations and denominations, and may be better placed to contribute to socio-political transformations than traditional religious institutions.

This chapter presents the findings from a case study of Abundant Life, a multiethnic, multinational, charismatic/Pentecostal congregation in Limerick City. It provides a history of the congregation, including growth fed by immigration, and argues that Abundant Life can be considered an example of extra-institutional religion because of how its people define themselves in opposition to the Irish Catholic Church. It also analyses how Abundant Life is negotiating immigration and ethnic diversity. There are remarkably harmonious relationships between native Irish and immigrants, which were built in large part on a leadership model in which one ethnic group does not hold significantly more power than others—although challenges remained when it came to building cross-cultural relationships. It argues that Abundant Life negotiates diversity more effectively than traditional congregations and denominations. It may be better placed to contribute to socio-political transformations, and to model reconciliation between groups, than traditional religious institutions.

This chapter presents the findings from a case study of Slí Eile (Magis Ireland), a Jesuit ministry for young adults. It includes a history of Slí Eile, and explains how it is an expression of extra-institutional religion. It explores how some young people considered Slí Eile an alternative to the institutional Irish Catholic Church, and Slí Eile’s efforts to promote lay–clerical collaboration. It describes how Slí Eile provided safe spaces where people could voice their doubts and find support in difficult times, thus contributing to individual transformation. It also describes how the young people perceived themselves as truly living out their faith in ‘another way’, centring their reflections on spirituality, social justice, and community. Some saw potential in this ‘other way’ to contribute to wider transformations in church, society, and politics—but these ambitions were not fully realized.