June Cooper, in her new book, provides an account of an under-documented Irish Protestant charity. The Protestant Orphan Society originated in Dublin in a key period of changing relations between Catholic and Protestant communities; its founding coincided with Catholic emancipation and corresponding concerns about the erosion of Ireland’s traditional socio-religious structure. The Protestant Orphan Society promoted (Protestant) children’s health and education and supported a range of boarding-out and apprentice schemes. The charity gradually declined during the early twentieth century as Ireland transitioned towards an independence resoundingly driven by a Catholic ethos. In light of this, The Protestant Orphan Society and its social significance is chronologically arranged, commencing with an overview of the founding of the society in the late 1820s before considering themes such as the society’s relation with the New Poor Law, opposition among Catholic communities based on allegations of proselytism, the fate of boarded-out orphans, child training schemes and the twentieth-century decline of the initiative.

June Cooper’s study is detailed and appears to be built upon considerable archival research. The main problems with the book lie in its presentation. For instance, the introduction is remarkably short and fails to outline an overarching argument. The only real argument made in the introduction is that the history of Irish childhood remains relatively unexplored, although even this (somewhat basic) argument is undermined by the fact that the author then cites numerous book-length studies (and omits others) which deal directly with this theme. Despite the title of the book, the reader does not really get a sense of how socially significant the Protestant Orphan Society actually was. Certainly, its impact was considerable among Protestant orphans but this constituted a dwindling population throughout the period in question. While admirably rich in detail about Protestant childhoods, the narrow focus of the book misses an important opportunity to form broader arguments about the social significance (and status) of Protestantism itself in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland.

Being highly descriptive, the book suffers from a lack of contextualisation. The secondary reference points of Cooper’s study are – quite narrowly – Irish focused. Even within the Irish historiography cited, there are significant gaps; the considerable number of recently published books on Irish child welfare and other subjects are left, in the main, unacknowledged. Cooper tends to neglect broader historiographical debates in (international) religious history on the actual social impact of mid-Victorian Evangelicalism. Nor are other relevant themes engaged with: nineteenth-century cultures of death, the nineteenth-century family, or even changing socio-cultural attitudes to childhood itself are given short shrift. The relatively limited discussion of conceptual issues means that this study does not connect with broader studies of social history, limiting the potential readership.

The chronological structure of the book also makes for a confusing read. For instance, health reappears as a key theme in almost all of the book’s chapters; it may have made some sense (for the ease of the reader) to pen a dedicated chapter on this subject. Cooper relies heavily upon lengthy primary quotations to underscore her points, but the sources are mostly viewed uncritically and there is a general lack of analysis. Even the index has its problems, failing to incorporate words such as ‘Belfast’ or ‘Northern Ireland’; keywords which historians of religion in Ireland would presumably be interested in searching for. Indeed, far more should have been said about religious relations between the north and south. Cooper’s The Protestant Orphan Society and its social significance in Ireland, 1828–1940 is certainly lacking in many important respects, but, that being said, it does provide an informative, if descriptive, account of an overlooked initiative that once improved the lives of the Irish young.