The Best Catholics in the World: The Irish, the Church and the End of a Special Relationship

The Number One Bestseller Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2021 is a landmark book that explores the tight hold the Catholic Church had on the Irish, going to Masses, novenas, shrines, and seminaries, and talking to those who have abandoned it and those who have held on. It is a lively personal odyssey and a resonant and gripping work of reporting that is a major contribution to the story of Ireland.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 10 March 2022
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

The Number One Bestseller
Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2021
A great achievement. . . Brilliant, engaging, and essential
Colm Tóibín
At once intimate and epic, this is a landmark book
Fintan O Toole
When Dubliner Derek Scally goes to Christmas Eve Mass on a visit home from Berlin, he finds more memories than congregants in the church where he was once an altar boy. Not for the first time, the collapse of the Catholic Church in Ireland brings to mind the fall of another powerful ideology - East German communism. While Germans are engaging earnestly with their past, Scally sees nothing comparable going on in his native land. So he embarks on a quest to unravel the tight hold the Church had on the Irish.
He travels the length and breadth of Ireland and across Europe, going to Masses, novenas, shrines, and seminaries, talking to those who have abandoned the Church and those who have held on, to survivors and campaigners, to writers, historians, psychologists, and many more. And he has probing and revealing encounters with Vatican officials, priests, and religious along the way.
The Best Catholics in the World is the remarkable result of his three-year journey. With wit, wisdom, and compassion, Scally gives voice and definition to the murky and difficult questions that face a society coming to terms with its troubling past. It is both a lively personal odyssey and a resonant and gripping work of reporting that is a major contribution to the story of Ireland.
Reflective, textured, insightful, and original ... rich with history, interrogation, and emotional intelligence
Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times
An unblinking look at the collapse of the Church and Catholic deference in Ireland. Excellent and timely
John Banville, The Sunday Times
Engaging, informative, and essential. . . A compelling and important book
Seamus Heaney, The Guardian
A powerful and important book that sheds light on a critical period in Irish history

Weight: 320g
Dimension: 454 x 200 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781844885275