Gladys Ganiel and Andrew R. Holmes have published a large interdisciplinary handbook of thirty-two chapters that explores the role religion has played on the island of Ireland since the Act of Union of 1800. The volume focuses on politics, society and day-to-day life more generally, with an eye to the impacts of violence, division and secularism. The editors’ objective is for the volume to become a point of reference for ‘future interpreters’ of religion in Ireland (xxxiii). It is split into three chronological parts that discuss these overall themes between 1800–1922, 1922–1968 and 1968–2023. The editors’ desire that these parts facilitate comparison is successful. Each chapter has a singular focus, but there is also dialogue between many of the contributors.

Part one, focusing on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contains eight chapters exploring the relationship and presence of religion, up to partition, through and within the prisms of magic, science, gender, politics, religious devotion and literature. Two chapters are particularly worth mentioning. Firstly, the chapter by Sarah Roddy brings new perspectives to Emmet Larkin’s well-trodden and known argument of devotional revolution. She offers new insights into the role of the laity and the transnational impact of the devotional revolution, which builds on the research on transnational Irish religious. Of note is her exploration of the material connection within the Irish public’s consumerist engagement with Catholic missions abroad. An exploration of images of Irish missionaries, and their potential to influence the pursuit of future religious life, could have expanded this work. Secondly, the chapter by John Wolffe examines the variety, growth, activity and ambitions of Protestantism up to 1914, focusing particularly on internal factors such as the presence and impact of evangelicalism. The text provides an in-depth sketch of Irish Protestant missionary activity, with a consideration of the role of women. This is a rich piece which may have been strengthened further by a focus on the impact of overseas missions on the island of Ireland itself (what David A. Hollinger has conceptualised as a ‘boomerang effect’). This would have presented an interesting comparison point with the previous chapter about the impact of Irish Catholic and Protestant missionary activities back in Ireland.

The second section, focusing on the twentieth century, contains ten chapters that portray collectively the impacts and realities of religion on the partitioned island after 1921, within education, politics, culture, gender, broadcasting and the differing religious experiences across the island. First of note is the chapter by Daithí Ó Corráin, who provides a balanced and nuanced analysis of the place and role of the Catholic Church in the Irish Free State. The author makes it clear where the Church failed to influence the state and explains the Church’s pragmatism, such as the recognition of its changing role: for example, the bishop of Cork’s changing views on the extent of the Church’s influence on politics during the later 1950s in the aftermath of the 1951 Mother and Child Scheme. His wider inclusion of a range of members of the Catholic Church hierarchy successfully expands current historiography’s focus on individuals such as Archbishop John Charles McQuaid. This chapter could have been further enriched through an explicit exploration of male as well as female religious. Lindsey Earner-Byrne’s chapter tracks the changes to societal beliefs that surrounded mothers who were unmarried, focusing a critical analysis of these gradual readjustments across the early to mid-twentieth century. This chapter shows how perceived morally acceptable behaviours and attitudes surrounding women’s bodies were influenced by religious teachings in both parts of the island.

The final part of the handbook focuses on the period after 1968 and contains the largest number of chapters, fourteen in total. These explore aspects such as secularism, violence, religious identity and religious practice, as well as law, politics, memory and abuse. Uniquely, it analyses religion beyond Christianity. James Gallen and Vladimir Kmec’s chapters are of note here. Gallen sensitively addresses the abuse that has occurred within the churches across the whole island, critically approaching the investigations, redress schemes and contents of apologies. He centres on the victims and their experiences, though possibly in too short a fashion with regard to abuse investigations. As to Kmec, the author successfully depicts the place of various religions in Ireland which are not discussed elsewhere in the handbook, treating these religious communities not as homogenous but delving well into their unique characteristics. His mention of Irish priests serving foreign-language speaking communities is interesting but could have been developed further to explore where and why these priests learnt Filipino or Portuguese, and whether this is a longer-term impact of Ireland’s missionary work.

Overall, Ganiel and Holmes’s volume is a major contribution to the field. First because of the sheer number of contributions it offers – no less than thirty-two rich chapters adding new information and perspectives to as many subjects. Secondly, the editors have organised a coherent whole that makes several contributions to the existing historiography. For one, the volume bridges uniquely the traditional focuses on Christianity to encompass non-Christian religions. This could have been a bit more systematic perhaps, with a chapter on other religions in the first two parts — a chapter on Judaism would have been particularly useful. Still, this is innovative and refreshing, and a strength of the volume. Finally, the volume offers several contributions that push into new areas, and show where the field might go next, such as the widening of the global, transnational and emotional scopes of current research.

On a final note, this reviewer would have liked a conclusion to bring together these areas of future research. This minor criticism aside, the handbook is a rich and well edited volume that will be most useful to academics, students and parties interested in religion in Ireland since 1800. The objective of the handbook becoming a point of reference will no doubt be achieved.