Different and the Same: A Folk History of the Protestants of Independent Ireland

by Deirdre Nuttall

This work explores the folk history, traditions and narratives of the Protestant minority in the Republic of Ireland. The author investigates the cultural, rather than simply faith-based, aspects of the group, incorporating issues of identity, custom and belief in a study that took place with the support of the National Folklore Collection. Deirdre Nuttall is an author and academic. She studied folklore and archaeology at UCD and took a master’s degree in social anthropology at the University of Durham, before returning to UCD to complete a PhD in folklore/ethnology. She has carried out research in Ireland, Newfoundland and Guatemala.

337 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2020

Reviews

[William Pike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Protestants in Ireland were a beleaguered community for much of the 20th century, the period mainly covered by this book, as de Valera and Cardinal McQuaid defined Ireland as a strictly Catholic country. But how beleaguered? Perhaps most of the Protestants that I know lived in Dublin and Wicklow which was much less affected by the Catholic narrative than the poor rural farmers interviewed in this book. In any case, Protestants had controlled Ireland since the 17C so a reckoning was due, even if Catholics fought with King Billy at the Boyne and Wolfe Tone and Charles Parnell were Protestants. And indeed this is 'old history' that is largely forgotten in the new secular progressive Ireland although one can still see the ruins of the many Big Houses burned in the 1920s. This book would have got five stars if it was better edited - there is a lot of authorial repetition and at times it rambles.

[K Mulholland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Protestants of Ireland

A very interesting book recording the thoughts and memories of the protestants of Ireland. This book looks at the poorer protestants in Ireland, describing their experience in a newly independent Ireland.