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Small Differences: Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, 1815-1922: An International Perspective (Volume 1)
The assumption that Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics are fundamentally different is central to modern Irish history. There are hundreds of books and thousands of articles that either presuppose the existence of Irish Catholic-Protestant differences
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1988
66 people want to read
About the author
Donald Harman Akenson
36 books10 followers[From book The United States and Ireland (1973):]
Donald Harman Akenson teaches history at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He was born in Minneapolis, took his degrees at Yale and Harvard, and taught and held administrative positions at both of those universities. He is the author of The Irish Education Experiment (1970); The Church of Ireland (1971); and Education and Enmity: The Control of Schooling in Northern Ireland (1973).
Donald Harman Akenson teaches history at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He was born in Minneapolis, took his degrees at Yale and Harvard, and taught and held administrative positions at both of those universities. He is the author of The Irish Education Experiment (1970); The Church of Ireland (1971); and Education and Enmity: The Control of Schooling in Northern Ireland (1973).
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July 6, 2025
The rare book you come away knowing less!
Akenson's method is to look closely at demographic data and compare the behavior of the Irish in Ireland, Canada, the US, and Australasia. He acknowledges that, unfortunately, much data is unavailable and that it is impossible to ascribe mid-18th century trends to previous times. This suggests to me that in the modern era the two groups really only did differ in worldview, but for previous eras we still have to rely upon "expert witness". He also seeks to avoid, as much as possible, confounding influences such as region and social class, but of course this is rather hard to do in some circumstances and indeed usually the suspected origin of the exact stereotypes he is seeking to dispel.
Akenson begins by arguing that we should focus only on commonly analyzed sociological factors - although I would have enjoyed an analysis of toaster storage habits - and convincing argues that Catholics and Protestants were largely the same in terms of family structure and treatment of women. The stereotypical large Catholic family or philandering Protestant ways are debunked - pregnant brides and illegitimate children appear to have been equally common according to the sparse data available. The large Catholic family is explained as a temporary blip: as Protestants were more likely to live in industrializing areas and have already gone through demographic transition, the preponderance of data for the late 19th century suggests a trend that likely never existed, as marital fertility later converged. It also appears that those married Catholics had to "make up" for the surprisingly high levels of "spinsterhood and bachelorhood" that was experienced, while Protestants typically managed to all get married off (a bit younger than Catholics, also suprising my prejudices). On his third sociological point, that both groups worked in similar roles, the main chapter is persuasive that Protestants did not have a monopoly on elite jobs. However the excellent appendices cast doubt on this: Akenson groups jobs into categories like "agriculture" and "commerce/manufacturing" but browsing the back of the book you see this method collapses high status and low status jobs within the same sector, such as miners and their overseers.
Akenson is able to avoid some of the confounding of class and region in a clever way: by looking at the experiences of Irish emigrants. Surely, if the two groups had significantly divergent behaviors on days other than Sunday, they could be observed continuing these practices in their new homes. I was surprised to learn the data on Irish emmigrants to America is rather poor. Apparently the Commonwealth was much more interested in tabulating its population. While unable to take on the American situation head on in his typical fashion (although there is a chapter that does as much as it can while explaining the problems with American data), Akenson is able to take the myths of Irish American historiography by looking at these other countries. The ideas that the Irish, and Catholics in particular, were somehow Famine-traumatized, culturally backward, or unable to speak English can be totally put to bed. Data shows both sects were perfectly normal in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada in terms of where they settled and what jobs they took. Akenson notes that contrary to recieved wisdom, it may have been the Protestant Irish that were the deviant group. He suggests that in Canada, Protestants' relative over-representation in rural areas and agricultural jobs were a result of the Orange Order, which would have helped immigrants secure land and credit. In the brief chapter on why the same comparisons cannot be made in America due to lack of data, my main takeaway was that American data that distinguishes Irish immigrants starts around 1870, after half of Irish emigrants had already settled and thus statistically classified as native. Akenson suggests that mistreatment of the Irish late comers or their consolidation in urban areas are more likely due to American particularity, especially the migration to cities in the early 20th century, rather than being determined by the culture of the immigrants.
The book includes a discussion of how the groups remained separate: segregated schools and a prohibition on interfaith marriages. It does seem as though the Protestant authorities made more overtures at "cross-community relations", and while Akenson claims the Catholic Church leaders were enforcing dictates their population already supported, his telling does give the impression that priests were eager to subvert the well-intentioned project of state schools. I am sure other authors have different opinions.
The last chapter includes an account of two linguistic coups: the tying of "Irish" to Catholic and the connection between the Gaelic language and the "Irish". This was convincing but a little out of place - perhaps it would have been better as an introduction. The chapter is supposed to be about "Systems of Belief". On this topic Akenson describes Catholics and Protestants as similar in fervor, feeling of persecution, and sharp internal distinction between right and wrong. This lead to a symbiosis where the two camps often defined themselves against the other - Protestant military victories scored as losses in the Catholic ledger.
I will finish by quoting Akenson's pithy and amusing summaries of the religions' political manifestations:
"among the politically articulate Catholic population, one encounters, from the 1820s onwards, two conflicting viewpoints: (a) that the Irish nation is the Catholic nation and (b) that Irish nationalism really has nothing at all to do with religion and instead is a political and constitutional movement that is open to all true Irishmen, whatever their religion. And, simultaneously, among the politically articulate Protestant population, there developed a parallel set of self-conflicting views: (a) that unionism (to use a convenient label) was not a religious movement, but was a political and constitutional movement open to anyone who was truly loyal to the Crown and to the British connection and (b) that one could not really trust the Catholics to be loyal"
"We are not bigoted or exclusive, for we are open to anyone who sincerely holds our beliefs... The fact that our political group is almost exclusively Catholic (or, Protestant as the case may be) is accounted for by the fact that the leaders of the other side are bigoted and mislead their decent followers so that they do not see that their best interest is in joining us, which, of course, we would not really trust them to do, given the sort of people they are at heart."
Akenson's method is to look closely at demographic data and compare the behavior of the Irish in Ireland, Canada, the US, and Australasia. He acknowledges that, unfortunately, much data is unavailable and that it is impossible to ascribe mid-18th century trends to previous times. This suggests to me that in the modern era the two groups really only did differ in worldview, but for previous eras we still have to rely upon "expert witness". He also seeks to avoid, as much as possible, confounding influences such as region and social class, but of course this is rather hard to do in some circumstances and indeed usually the suspected origin of the exact stereotypes he is seeking to dispel.
Akenson begins by arguing that we should focus only on commonly analyzed sociological factors - although I would have enjoyed an analysis of toaster storage habits - and convincing argues that Catholics and Protestants were largely the same in terms of family structure and treatment of women. The stereotypical large Catholic family or philandering Protestant ways are debunked - pregnant brides and illegitimate children appear to have been equally common according to the sparse data available. The large Catholic family is explained as a temporary blip: as Protestants were more likely to live in industrializing areas and have already gone through demographic transition, the preponderance of data for the late 19th century suggests a trend that likely never existed, as marital fertility later converged. It also appears that those married Catholics had to "make up" for the surprisingly high levels of "spinsterhood and bachelorhood" that was experienced, while Protestants typically managed to all get married off (a bit younger than Catholics, also suprising my prejudices). On his third sociological point, that both groups worked in similar roles, the main chapter is persuasive that Protestants did not have a monopoly on elite jobs. However the excellent appendices cast doubt on this: Akenson groups jobs into categories like "agriculture" and "commerce/manufacturing" but browsing the back of the book you see this method collapses high status and low status jobs within the same sector, such as miners and their overseers.
Akenson is able to avoid some of the confounding of class and region in a clever way: by looking at the experiences of Irish emigrants. Surely, if the two groups had significantly divergent behaviors on days other than Sunday, they could be observed continuing these practices in their new homes. I was surprised to learn the data on Irish emmigrants to America is rather poor. Apparently the Commonwealth was much more interested in tabulating its population. While unable to take on the American situation head on in his typical fashion (although there is a chapter that does as much as it can while explaining the problems with American data), Akenson is able to take the myths of Irish American historiography by looking at these other countries. The ideas that the Irish, and Catholics in particular, were somehow Famine-traumatized, culturally backward, or unable to speak English can be totally put to bed. Data shows both sects were perfectly normal in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada in terms of where they settled and what jobs they took. Akenson notes that contrary to recieved wisdom, it may have been the Protestant Irish that were the deviant group. He suggests that in Canada, Protestants' relative over-representation in rural areas and agricultural jobs were a result of the Orange Order, which would have helped immigrants secure land and credit. In the brief chapter on why the same comparisons cannot be made in America due to lack of data, my main takeaway was that American data that distinguishes Irish immigrants starts around 1870, after half of Irish emigrants had already settled and thus statistically classified as native. Akenson suggests that mistreatment of the Irish late comers or their consolidation in urban areas are more likely due to American particularity, especially the migration to cities in the early 20th century, rather than being determined by the culture of the immigrants.
The book includes a discussion of how the groups remained separate: segregated schools and a prohibition on interfaith marriages. It does seem as though the Protestant authorities made more overtures at "cross-community relations", and while Akenson claims the Catholic Church leaders were enforcing dictates their population already supported, his telling does give the impression that priests were eager to subvert the well-intentioned project of state schools. I am sure other authors have different opinions.
The last chapter includes an account of two linguistic coups: the tying of "Irish" to Catholic and the connection between the Gaelic language and the "Irish". This was convincing but a little out of place - perhaps it would have been better as an introduction. The chapter is supposed to be about "Systems of Belief". On this topic Akenson describes Catholics and Protestants as similar in fervor, feeling of persecution, and sharp internal distinction between right and wrong. This lead to a symbiosis where the two camps often defined themselves against the other - Protestant military victories scored as losses in the Catholic ledger.
I will finish by quoting Akenson's pithy and amusing summaries of the religions' political manifestations:
"among the politically articulate Catholic population, one encounters, from the 1820s onwards, two conflicting viewpoints: (a) that the Irish nation is the Catholic nation and (b) that Irish nationalism really has nothing at all to do with religion and instead is a political and constitutional movement that is open to all true Irishmen, whatever their religion. And, simultaneously, among the politically articulate Protestant population, there developed a parallel set of self-conflicting views: (a) that unionism (to use a convenient label) was not a religious movement, but was a political and constitutional movement open to anyone who was truly loyal to the Crown and to the British connection and (b) that one could not really trust the Catholics to be loyal"
"We are not bigoted or exclusive, for we are open to anyone who sincerely holds our beliefs... The fact that our political group is almost exclusively Catholic (or, Protestant as the case may be) is accounted for by the fact that the leaders of the other side are bigoted and mislead their decent followers so that they do not see that their best interest is in joining us, which, of course, we would not really trust them to do, given the sort of people they are at heart."
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