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• Protestants, print and Gaelic culture in Ireland, 1567-1722
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Protestants, print and Gaelic culture, 1567-1722: Department of Taoiseach and IRCHSS research project at UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland

A prestigious and highly competitive research award from the Department of the Taoiseach and the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (Grants in Theology and Religious Studies) was awarded to the UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland’s Director, Dr Marc Caball, in early 2009 for a three-year research project entitled ‘Protestants, print and Gaelic culture in Ireland, 1567-1722’.

The project centres on a unique and dynamic encounter between a new religious ideology, print technology and Gaelic culture. This creative and transformative process sheds considerable light not only on the rich and often subtle complexities of religious and cultural interchange in early modern Ireland but also offers a shared legacy for both historic traditions in contemporary Ireland. A key objective of the research project focuses on deepening knowledge and understanding of a common historical inheritance which so far has little informed processes of ecumenical and political rapprochement and reconciliation on the island of Ireland. 

The project investigates a critical episode in Irish religious and cultural history during the early modern period: the use of print in Irish for Protestant evangelisation. However, this textually-productive amalgam of reformation ideology, print technology and Irish has been largely overlooked by subsequent historians and its legacy overshadowed by the sectarian and ethnic controversy engrained in the Irish historical experience. The project aims to re-evaluate and offer new interpretations of an unparalleled meeting between native and newcomer in early modern Ireland. 

In addition to funding two post-doctoral researchers in the area, a series of workshops and a conference will be organised within the context of the project in collaboration with partners at National University of Ireland, Maynooth, National Library of Ireland and the University of Ulster.

In January 2010 Dr Mark Empey and Dr Kathleen Middleton commenced work on this research project. For further information on their work please click on the Researchers link