New IRCHSS funding with two new postgraduate scholarships
awarded to the UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland
In early December 2008 the UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland (HII) was
successful in obtaining almost €194,000 in funding from the Irish Research
Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS). The project in
question Protestants, print and Gaelic culture in Ireland, 1567-1722
received the funding under the Project Grants Schemes in Theology and
Religious Studies.
Short abstract:
The proposed project centres on a unique and dynamic encounter between
Protestantism, print technology and Gaelic culture between 1567 and 1722. 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 aims to investigate a critical episode in Irish religious and
cultural history during the early modern period: the use of print in Irish for Protestant
evangelisation. Beginning with the publication of John Carswell’s Gaelic version of
the Book of Common Order printed in Edinburgh in 1567 and down to The church
catechism in Irish (Belfast, 1722), a remarkable and now largely obscured Protestant
programme of translation of devotional texts was undertaken. In particular, the
publication of the Irish translation of the New Testament in Dublin in 1602/3 and the
much delayed publication of William Bedell’s Old Testament in Irish in London in
1685 represent extraordinary achievements in the Protestant evangelical
engagement with print and the Irish language. 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 dissension engrained in the Irish historical experience. The research
project also incorporates a comparative strand which seeks to situate the Irish
evidence in the context of the French Protestant experience in the early modern
period. In summary, this proposal aims to re-evaluate and offer new interpretations of
an unparalleled meeting between native and newcomer in early modern Ireland.
The two doctoral scholarships will be announced shortly. Please send
an email to hii@ucd.ie if you are interested in receiving further
information.