The Counter-Reformation papacy, convinced of the importance of clerical education in its war against Protestantism, also looked upon the foundation of national colleges in Rome as part of its strategy to centralise the Catholic Church. The opening of the Roman Congregation of Propaganda Fide in 1622, which attempted to tighten the bonds between countries like Ireland and the Roman See, provided an impetus to action. The origins of the Irish College in Rome, accommodated in its present, its fifth, building on the Coelian Hill since the 1920s, go back to 1628 when it was inaugurated by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi (1595–1632), nephew of Pope Gregory xv and Cardinal Protector of Ireland, with the assistance of the Irish Franciscan Luke Wadding (1588–1657), a networker of prodigious proportions. His career is fully described by Thomas O'Connor in one of the more important contributions to this book. The volume under review is not a continuous history but a collection of short studies, varying in style and quality, many of them transcripts of lectures. They demonstrate the way in which the Irish College became the focus for the wider Irish Catholic world. The college was far more than a seminary and was often more akin to an Irish embassy in Rome or a central intelligence bureau. The extraordinary impact of the Irish Church on the English-speaking world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, where Hibernisation went hand in hand with Romanisation, is ably chronicled in the contributions of Colin Barr, Amy McKinney and Rory Sweetman which show how effective was the impact of what has been described as an ‘Irish episcopal imperialism’. The critical part played in this process by the long-serving rector of the Irish College, Tobias Kirby (1804–95), often overshadowed by Cardinal Paul Cullen, is clearly demonstrated by Michael Olden. Archbishop Kirby was an assiduous record-keeper and the archives of the college, described here by Vera Orschel, will encourage further research and future publications.