Irish Catholicism and Science

The Church today rails against the media and its alleged policy of subverting the faithful. And so Don O Leary tells us in this scholarly and eminently readable work it did back in the 1850s...totally fascinating detail illustrated with generous space given to quotations by the main protagonists. ~Christopher Moriarty The Irish Catholic

In this book Don O Leary scientist and historian explores the relationship between Irish Catholicism and science from the post famine years of the mid nineteenth century essentially to the present. His analysis exudes the same painstaking dispassionate and meticulous approach adopted in his two cognate publications Vocationalism and Social Catholicism in Twentieth Century Ireland 2000 and Roman Catholicism and Modern Science: a History 2006 ... O Leary gives a lucid and balanced account of the widely diverse views on the relationship between science and Catholic theology at a time of burgeoning new scientific insights. Overall Don O Leary has produced a fine book which can be recommended as an indispensably thorough account of Irish theological thinking in a period of remarkable scientific progress in the country. ~Vincent McBrierty emeritus professor of physics a

Don O'Leary's detailed overview of the impact of science on religious thinking in Ireland from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first is a welcome contribution to the increasing number of studies of Ireland's scientific history. ~Clara Cullen, The British J History of Science

O'Leary's book is a wonderful contribution not only to the history of modern Ireland, but also to the science-theology dialogue in general. It is a wonderfully written book that is a joy to read, and is highly recommended. ~Vincent M. Smiles, St John's University, Minnesota

O'Leary has written a valuable text which attempts to grapple with important debates in the history of science in Ireland. While dominated by Catholic officials, the views of lay Catholics, scientists and others are also considered. O'Leary has done future scholars a great service in presenting a general overview from which a number of questions and new projects will naturally arise. As a reader I would have preferred greater analysis and argument (which O'Leary shows he is clearly quite capable of). However, there is a need for this book and for the factual account that it offers. ~Juliana Adelman, The irish Review