This volume is to be welcomed for a number of reasons. First of all in contrast with most historians who confine themselves to explaining why the Reformation failed to make real progress in Ireland, Mac Cuarta demonstrates how Catholicism not only survived but actually underwent a revival during the reigns of James I and Charles I, leading to the emergence of a church parallel to that established by the state. Secondly, it is a regional study, whereas most studies of seventeenth-century Irish Catholicism have worked on a national level. The ecclesiastical province of Armagh is the author's choice of region, a geographical area that comprises all of Ulster, not to mention Cos. Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Longford, and part of Offaly. The first four chapters deal with the religious situation in Ulster, while the next three concentrate on north Leinster. Whereas Ulster was firmly rooted in the Gaelic world, it was socially, culturally, and politically different from the rest of the ecclesiastical province, differences that were accentuated by the refusal of Old English Catholics to support the insurgents during the Nine Years War. Because of these differences the pace of renewal in the Catholic church was not uniform but varied from region to region.

The chronological period chosen situates the context of the study between the end of the Nine Years War in 1603 and the outbreak of war once more in 1641, and while this was an era of relative tranquility, it must be remembered that the crown administration undertook three active campaigns against recusancy during this time. The first in 1605–7 was centred on the towns of the Pale, the second from 1611 to 1619 was countrywide, while the final one occurring between 1630 and 1632 focused on religious houses and mass houses.

Exhausted after the Nine Years War, the Ulster Irish had to face the imposition of the state church for the first time. In the aftermath of the Flight of the Earls, Catholic clergy were bereft of the patronage they had normally enjoyed from the traditional elite. The Plantation of Ulster also created a hostile environment for Catholicism, while the poverty of the people meant that they were ill equiped to maintain returning tridentine clergy from the continent. All this in contrast with the Old English areas of north Leinster, where an alliance between the merchant and landed elites and returning clergy who had been trained on the continent facilitated a Catholic resurgence. While it was not until c. 1610 that tridentine clergy were returning in considerable numbers, the presence of English Catholic refugees in north Leinster in the 1590s helped to foster allegiance to the new-style Catholicism, as did the importation of Catholic religious works in English.

The town of Drogheda played a central role in this resurgence and Mac Cuarta draws attention to an interesting link between the refoundation of the Franciscan presence in Drogheda in 1610 and the foundation of St Anthony's College in Louvain in 1607. Donatus Mooney, first guardian in Louvain was appointed guardian in Drogheda from 1610 to 1615, serving as minister provincial from 1615 to 1618, before returning as guardian until 1623. Mooney was not the only talented friar to be appointed to Drogheda in this period. It was the port from which many young men travelled to the continent to be trained for the priesthood and the port through which they returned to Ireland. Many of the provisions needed for the upkeep of Louvain were shipped through this port as well.

Previous work on the printing of religious material in the Irish language by the friars in Louvain has tended to treat the material in simple chronological order. It is hardly fortuitous that the first three works were published during the state campaign against recusancy 1611 to 1619, a campaign that the Franciscans themselves did not hesitate to call ‘persecution’. It is quite likely that this publishing venture was a deliberate response to the situation at home, and it is interesting that Bonaventura Ó Heoghasa's Gaelic catechism (Antwerp, 1611, Louvain, 1614–19), while drawing heavily on the non-polemical works of Canisius and Bellarmine, does not hesitate to introduce phrases like ‘according to the heretics’ into the text. Indeed the practical examples cited by the three friar authors all indicate that in addition to providing basic Christian doctrine, they are endeavouring to strengthen their compatriots in the allegiance to Catholicism despite the pressure to conform to the state church. They would also have been well aware of the success of English-language religious works functioning as ‘domme preachers’ in north Leinster in strengthening adherence to Catholicism.

The book is not without its surprises. While most people are aware that Randal MacDonnell, first earl of Antrim, was a recusant Catholic, they may not realize that James Hamilton, first earl of Abercorn, chief undertaker for the barony of Strabane, was equally staunch in adhering to the old faith. Together with his brother George, they not only introduced Scottish Catholic planters to this area, but also brought Jesuit missionaries to minister to them. It seems that these missioners more or less commuted between Hamilton and MacDonnell territory. Furthermore, the Londoners' agents in the diocese of Derry considered the local priests to be desirable tenants, and treated them as social equals. This meant that, despite the normal perception of the Ulster Plantation as being inimical to Catholicism, conditions in north-west Ulster were far more benign than in other areas of the plantation.

Mac Cuarta is most nuanced throughout the volume, carefully distinguishing between three kinds of Catholic clergy, native ministers (nominally part of the state church), survivalist, unreformed priests, and new-style tridentine clergy. He also alerts the reader to the differences between recently founded religious orders like the Jesuits and Capuchins and their older counterparts such as the Franciscans and Dominicans. While the former were imbued with the tridentine reform programme from the beginning, tending to carry out their missionary work in co-operation with the local bishops and clergy, the latter found in the imposition of diocesan and parochial structures a curtailment of their freedom, leading to tensions between diocesan and regular clergy. Furthermore, the attempts of the older orders to reclaim the buildings and lands they had lost during the dissolution of the religious houses understandably gave rise to friction between the original possessors and their current owners. Indeed, one of the great ironies of this book is its elaboration of the tensions that came to the surface within Catholicism precisely at the moment when the church had re-emerged as a dynamic entity, tensions between Gaelic Irish and Old English, between diocesan and regular clergy, tensions between the regulars themselves, tensions between the laity and clergy.

Brian Mac Cuarta is to be congratulated on adopting this regional approach to the study of Irish ecclesiastical history. It is to be hoped that others will follow his example.