Watchmen to the House of Israel? Irish Methodism and the Religious Press

Abstract

This chapter shows that literacy in English could be utilized by the Methodist community in Ireland to create a countervailing religious and political discourse to that of their English brethren, allowing them to intervene in both political and religious issues. This discussion of literacy, denominational identity, and Irish Methodism provides a vivid example of the deep connections between religion and literacy outlined earlier in the volume. With the emergence of the ‘nonconformist conscience’ into British public life in the 1880s, Irish Methodists responded by developing their own denominational newspaper that articulated a peculiarly Irish Methodist view, distinct from that being promoted in England. The establishment of the weekly Christian Advocate in Belfast in 1884 marked the transfer of denominational influence from the wealth of Dublin to the popular heartlands in Ulster. Thus the establishment and distribution of an indigenous Irish Methodist journal drew together a geographically dispersed denomination and developed a distinctly Irish Methodist response to current affairs.