ABSTRACT
This chapter explores new perspectives on the history of women religious in Ireland, and it does so through the lens of translation history. It draws attention to the significant output of Catholic literature translated from French into English in nineteenth-century Ireland, and to the role played by Ireland's female religious communities in this process. By making use of the translator's own prefaces and comments, the chapter shows their awareness of the necessity of translation in Ireland at the time, and even of the cultural impact of translation. Furthermore, comments on textual 'chastity' or 'simplicity' reflected the moral and spiritual direction of religious translators, as well as more general, both tradition-bound and fashionable, approaches to texts and translation. The chapter also focuses on the ideas of anonymity and invisibility, and establishes links among translation, women and religious life. It also shows another dimension to the term 'transforming power', which Magray used in the title of her study of Irish nuns.
