ABSTRACT
From the nineteenth until the late twentieth century the Irish were the largest immigrant group in mainland Britain. Until its independence in 1922, Ireland was constitutionally British, but retained distinctive cultural traditions including a majority adherence to Roman Catholicism. Holding fast to specically Roman Catholic forms of Christianity provided one means among others of sustaining an Irish national culture for an independent Ireland and for many immigrants and their descendants. The parish church in Britain, through its architecture and organization of visual symbols in space, provided a site for the reinforcement and enactment of national identity. It was, however, a site in tension. The Catholic hierarchy, re-established in 1850 in England and Wales and 1878 in Scotland wished to gain acceptability in British society for the Church and its adherents. It also tried to integrate the Irish into Britain through education (in which, even in Catholic schools, Irish identity was second to British). Roman Catholic Church architecture reects this dual function of maintaining Irishness but adapting to Britishness, as the church could be a place where identity was constructed and performed. This essay focuses on the post-war period of the mid twentieth century, when hundreds of new churches were built to cope with rising immigration and population. This was also a time of transition for the Church, as Second Vatican Council transformations of the liturgy led to a rethinking of traditional customs and symbols constituting aspects of Irish culture.
