Catholic Literature and Literary Culture in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish

Abstract

Abstract A range of religious literature—in both manuscript and print—was composed, transmitted, and consumed in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish in the period between the Battle of Culloden and Catholic emancipation. This chapter is concerned with that religious literature and the broader culture(s) which sustained it. Each of these three languages was marginalized, to varying degrees, within a consolidating and centralizing Anglophone British State, so too does the extent and nature of Catholic literary production vary greatly from language to language. They can, nonetheless, be usefully examined together. Common threads include the important early role of Continental colleges in the education of priests and the cultivation of literature, the popularity of vernacular translations from English Catholic authors, and comparable or overlapping networks of printers and patrons. Of the three languages examined, the most voluminous and varied Catholic literary output is to be found in Irish while the evidence for Welsh is scant is contrast. Notably in this regard, and in contrast with Irish, the volume of printed Catholic literary output in both Scottish Gaelic and Welsh is a very small proportion of the volume of printing in those languages more generally.