Publisher's Synopsis
This volume traces the experience of the Church of Ireland, from the 1690s to the 1990s: as the Established Church until 1870, and through 125 years as an independent Irish institution.;Beginning with the vigorous life of the Church after the Williamite Wars, the author describes the long Georgian century, assesses the "English interest" in the Church, its role in Irish society and its relations with other denominations. He explores the great revival around the Acto of Union (1800), and the influences of reforming bishops and evangelical revival.;In the half century before 1870, the author assesses the institutional changes effected by reforming governments, and the internal developments which gave the Victorian Church a missionary character. He explores the Church of Ireland's heroic role in recurrent famine crises, especially the Great Famine, and its philanthropic engagement with Irish society generally.;The Church's reconstruction after disestablishment is examined in depth, as is the theme of "Church and country" in the era of Home Rule, World Wars I and II, and the development after partition of two Irish states. Other prominent 20th-century themes are: the leadership of Archbishops Gregg, Simms and Eames; the Church's management of internal change; its significant role in the worldwide Anglican Communion; and its engagement with ecumenism, and with the policial violence of the closing decades of the century.
