A discreet benevolence: female philanthropy and the catholic resurgence in eighteenth-century ireland [1

Abstract

Abstract The recovery of Irish Catholicism from the disruptions of the penal era coincided with a significant expansion in charitable activity by women of all religious denominations. Common features of this philanthropy included its concentration on poor women and children, and the mixture of social concern and religious zeal which motivated it. In their work, however, Catholic women had to take into account both the provisions of the anti-Catholic legislation, and the distrust of elements in their own community. On the other hand, the weakness of ecclesiastical structures allowed laywomen some degree of freedom in the foundation and management of their projects. With the re-establishment of hierarchical authority, that autonomy was sharply diminished. Ultimately, like their co-religionists in Counter-Reformation Europe, charitable women felt obliged to accept the restrictions inherent in membership of a religious congregation, thereby setting the pattern for the Catholic female philanthropy of the next century.