Irish Jesuit chaplains in the First World War

December 15, 2014 in News

Author: Damien Burke (Ed.)
Publisher: Messenger Publications

At a time of great turmoil at home in Ireland, thirty-two Irish Jesuits signed up to minister to Catholic soldiers on the European battlefields of the First World War.

Damien Burke, assistant archivist to the Irish Jesuit Province, has edited a fascinating collection of essays on eleven Irish Jesuit Chaplains. Six of the Jesuits in the book survived, such as Fr Frank Browne, the most decorated Catholic chaplain to survive the war. Amongst the five who did not come home was the well-known Fr Willie Doyle, who story is told here by Bernard McGuckian SJ.

Damien, a native of Cork, is assistant archivist to the Irish Jesuit Province and works in the archives in Leeson Street, Dublin, where much of the material contained in the book is located.

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