The church, the state, and the Fenian threat, 1861-75 /

Rafferty counters the recent trend in Irish historiography to play down the impact of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians) on the development of Irish nationalism and on the positions of the English government and the Catholic Church regarding the "Irish question." A Jesuit scholar, Rafferty is an expert on church history. In contrast to R.V. Comerford (The Fenians in Context, CH, Nov'85), Rafferty asserts that by 1875, "Fenianism had helped change the debate about the relationship of the Irish people to both the British state and the Catholic Church." The Fenian insistence on Irish independence and the separation of church and state forced changes in the policies of both the English government and the Catholic Church, as well as furthering the tradition of violence, or the threat of it, in the nationalist movement. Requires substantial familiarity with the period. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. W. Auld California State University, Dominguez Hills