Citation

McMahon TG. History Compass 2007; 5(3): 845-864.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00425.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

After the so-called ‘revisionist controversy’ of the 1990s, historians of Ireland have embraced more fervently comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the Irish past. One subfield that has benefited enormously from these new directions has been the history of popular culture. In particular, the study of popular religion in the long nineteenth century has become more nuanced during the past fifteen years, as scholars have re-assessed the combined impacts of population change and the Catholic Church's ‘devotional revolution’ on popular culture and beliefs. An examination of the transformation of the devotional practice known as ‘the pattern’ suggests that popular religion (and popular culture more generally) emerged out of a dialectical process in which local traditions and beliefs were nearly as significant as were the prescriptive actions of elites.