Abstract

Jesuit Finances in Restoration Ireland. A Relational Network Analysis

While the official reports of the Jesuit mission to Ireland during the Restoration period depicted an impoverished, desolate existence at the periphery of Europe, the personal correspondence of the missionaries paints quite a different picture. Financial questions were of overwhelming importance. The article demonstrates that it was not the shortage of money that impeded the mission’s long-term success. Instead, the missionaries’ reliance on different networks with opposing norm expectations hindered a unified effort and left the mission unprepared for the political changes of the late seventeenth century. After the Cromwellian conquest most of the Irish Jesuits fled to the continent where they made active use of a variety of connections provided to them by three major network domains: as Jesuits they profited from the multiple ties of the globally operating order, which facilitated investments. As Irishmen in Europe they formed part of an international British exile network where they found refuge and sources of income. Without much difficulty, Irish Jesuit exiles could conform to the role patterns attached to both these networks and meet the respective norm expectations. Problems arose when the missionaries returned to their native environment after the Restoration. The national clan-network in which they were originally rooted was much less compatible with the role patterns expected from them by the order. Irish Catholic families expected their members to work first and foremost for the benefit and survival of the clan, while the Society of Jesus demanded respect for the hierarchy and investment of money for the good of the mission. During the 1650s, profits from investments and donations were acquired through the networks of exiles and the order. These would have provided a comfortable starting point for the re-establishment of the mission, but the opportunity was missed. Torn between the norms of their diverging network domains, the opportunity to establish the mission on safer ground was lost.