Irish Jesuit annual letters 1604-1674

Annual Letters were the means by which Jesuits across the globe stayed in contact with Rome and with each other. Twenty-five of the Annual Letters from Ireland survive and they are published here for the first time along with translations from Latin and Portuguese into English. Not only do they give insight into this dynamic and influential mission, they also provide unique information on the social, political, cultural, religious, sexual and linguistic realities of the time. This edition, published in two volumes, is based on manuscripts held in the Irish Jesuit Archives and and in the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus. On average, there were twenty Jesuits on the Irish mission who ran houses in towns and cities across the island as well as embarking on frequent preaching expeditions. Despite their small numbers these were confident and detailed observers of conditions in Ireland during one of its most violent and turbulent centuries. Here are first-hand accounts of plague in Clonmel, famine in Connacht, massacre in Drogheda, exorcisms and and miracles across the whole island.