Faubourg Saint Patrice - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

emerges through the representations, character development, and narrative structure of
his writing.
Indeed, during James Joyce's life and for many years previous, the Catholic
Church appeared to have complete omnipotence over the Irish people and was
challenged only by the institutional powers of the British empire. Evolving into a unique
and powerful entity over centuries of alternating isolation and persecution, the Church
became the predominant force which molded and controlled the cultural identity of
Ireland -an identity which, while defining the "structure of limits" within the culture,
served as "the regulator and guarantor of movement" within it (Greenblatt228).
Following the Protestant Revolution in England, the Irish Catholic Church's institutional
power increased and consolidated, albeit surreptitiously, in response to draconian threats
from the Protestant colonial powers of Britain. One particularly horrific example of the
persecution of Catholics is the repressive Penal Laws which where in effect from 1691 to
1829. Under this series of laws, Irish Catholics were severely persecuted by the British
government, with most rights of citizenship-- including land ownership, holding political
office, and voting--denied to practicing Catholics, and all Irish were forced to pay tithes
to the Protestant Church of Ireland. For a period, all Catholic bishops were banished
from the island, with a £ 50 reward offered for their capture (Blanshard 22-3). In
response, the Irish populace ironically increased in devotion to the Church despite the
ever present danger of severe religious persecution. Joyce's perception of the Irish
response to this discrimination is unambiguous, as reflected in this excerpt from his 1907
speech to a Triestian audience: "For [the Irish], the great Protector of civil rights is a
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