Using the Irish Language to Further the Aims of Bible Societies: An Analysis of Irish Bibles in the Russell Library, Maynooth

Abstract

In Ireland, the setbacks suffered by the papacy at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave rise in some quarters to expectations of mass conversions to Protestantism. Several Protestant denominations began to make use of the Irish language to reach out to Catholics. From the 1790s this became widespread as both the Hibernian Bible Society (est. 1806) and its parent body, the British and Foreign Bible Society recognised the merits of translating the bible into the language of the general population as part of their strategy to achieve conversions. Barbara McCormack examines the collection of Irish-language bibles produced by both societies that are now deposited in the Russell Library, Maynooth, highlighting patterns in the use of the Irish language for this purpose during particular periods from 1810 to 1829, from 1830 to 1849, and for a short time after Irish independence. She concludes that despite their members’ religious fervour in producing and disseminating Irish-language material, the societies were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempts to use the language as a means to achieve its goals.