An index to mission stations and religious houses in Ireland and founded from Ireland, c.1700s-1970s

Dates: Ensuring complete coverage for the period before 1700 is beyond the scope of this project. However, wherever information is provided on foundations created prior to 1700, this will be included. Most of the data will cover the nineteenth and twentieth centuries up to Vatican II.

Format: initally electronic (Access), hosted on the Maynooth mission history website, and to publish in hardcopy also.

Coverage: within Ireland, North America, Australia, UK, continental Europe (networks established); Asia, Oceania, Africa: reliant on Irish Missionary Union network (initially).

Headings:  congregational or organisational name (including changes to title and ‘also known as’), denominational affiliation, date of foundation (year, month, date); dates of significant further expansion or contraction; ministry shifts or new projects; dates of transfer, withdrawal, closure; full address(es), administrative affiliation (diocese including changes in administrative divisions, region / province, local administrative units); names of founding personnel (both family names and adopted or religious names) and numbers of personnel; and summary account of its work or ministries, at approx. ten year intervals (matching the decennial census divisions employed in Ireland).

Information sources to be noted, including Irish Church Directory, Catholic Directory, local church and commercial directories, newspapers, unpublished PhD research, documentation from within the organisation, contemporary publications, etc. In addition, this index will direct researchers to the archive(s) in which relevant material is located, linking to existing guides to mission resources (both online and in hard copy).

Phase I: Underway, April - Oct.  2004, collection of material relating to religious houses in Ireland (data collection by Ms. Máire Ní Chearbhaill)

For sample of questionnaire sheets employed in this first phase, see attached Word files:

Covering letter to religious houses
Questionnaire sheet, 'foundation houses' in Ireland
Questionnaire sheet, other houses in Ireland
Questionnaire sheet, houses founded directly from Ireland
Defining 'ministry'

Updates will be posted on this website, and the index itself will be made available here in the first instance.